The Medoc

Bordeaux’s Left Bank, the Medoc, continues centuries-old traditions to produce some of the world’s most famous wines.

In Part 3 of our tour of the Bordeaux region we visit the Left Bank – The Medoc – to sample some of the world’s finest wines, born of an ancient tradition.

Susan Gough Henly

3 August, 2018


On the Left Bank of Western Europe’s largest estuary, the Gironde, the chateaux of the Medoc are as beautiful as any in the Loire but they also have tractors buzzing around and sometimes even horses ploughing the vineyards out back. They may resemble a movie set but these are working farms that produce some of the world’s finest wines whose very names make serious oenophiles go weak at the knees. 

It’s all about the terroir and what grape varieties work best on what soils. Here, the ancient gravelly soils produce some of the most expensive and sought after cabernet-based red wines. Yet it wasn’t until Dutch engineers drained its marshes in the 17th century that this stony and sometimes lonely landscape to the west of the Gironde became synonymous with superb wine. 

It’s a closed club ruled by centuries-old traditions. The best Medoc wines are still ranked according to the 1855 classification of Grands Cru Classes (Great Classified Growths) with 61 chateaux listed from first to fifth growths while 250 chateaux are designated as Crus Bourgeois (Bourgeois Growths). 

The Medoc’s most hallowed chateaux are in Margaux, Saint Julien, Pauillac and Saint Estephe, four key Bordeaux appellations or wine regions that stretch about 25 kilometres along the single-lane D2 road. 

Soon after you’ve left the industrial northern edge of the city, start your explorations at Chateau du Taillan, a Cru Bourgeois which is also a French national heritage site with some of the oldest cellars in the Medoc. Run by a family of sisters, it also breaks the mold by offering tours, blending workshops and wine and food tastings seven days a week.

 

The Medoc’s most hallowed chateaux are in Margaux, Saint Julien, Pauillac and Saint Estephe, four key Bordeaux appellations or wine regions

Pretend that you are to the manor born by staying at the nearby flower-bedecked Fourth Growth Chateau Beychevelle

 

 

It’ll take another 20 minutes’ drive to get to Chateau Margaux, a Neo-Palladian palace at the end of a long alley of plane trees whose adjacent new winemaking facility has been designed by Pritzker-award-winning architect Norman Foster. Starchitect-designed facilities are the new black in Bordeaux these days.

Fourth Growth Chateau Prieure Lichine, originally a Saint Augustine priory, has no chateau but its vegetation-covered, barrel-shaped winery delivers a terrific visitor program seven days a week, including tasting workshops and terroir tutorials. The most ambitious tour, Gourmet Day in Margaux, offers food and wine pairing experiences here and at three other chateaux: Rauzan Gassies, Kirwan and La Tour de Bessan.

The Maison du Vin in the little township of Margaux hosts tastings and arranges chateaux visits. There’s also a very New World-like cellar door for the terrific Third Growth Chateau Ferriere while La Cave d’Ulysses is an excellent wine shop offering lots of back vintages.

Lunch must be at the convivial little bistro Le Lion d’Or located in a yellow-shuttered house in Arcins village. Rub shoulders with winemakers who bring in their own bottles or take them out of private lockers lining the restaurant walls. Insider tip: nobody, not even the tourists, pays corkage fees at this little gem.

In Saint Julien, visit classic Second Growth Leoville Barton, run by Anglo-Irish Bordelais Anthony Barton, one of Bordeaux’s finest ambassadors whose wines are always fairly priced. Pretend that you are to the manor born by staying at the nearby flower-bedecked Fourth Growth Chateau Beychevelle, nicknamed the Little Versailles of the Medoc, or enjoy the luxurious rooms and acclaimed restaurant at the glamorous hotel Chateau Cordeillan Bages.

Pauillac is the epicentre of the Medoc where First Growth chateaux Latour, Lafite Rothschild and Mouton Rothschild are within spitting distance of each other. Chateau Mouton Rothschild was one of the first Bordeaux properties to bottle and brand its own wines and open its doors to visitors. Check out its remarkable art collection to see the originals of artworks by Picasso, Miro, Dali and others that, in a stroke of genius, Baron Philippe commissioned to adorn the chateau’s wine labels.

Nearby is the fairytale Second Growth Chateau Pichon Longueville Baron, perhaps the most beautiful Neo-Classical chateau in the Medoc, whose innovative underground cellars lie beneath its ornamental reflecting pool. Open every day of the year by appointment, the estate tour includes the vineyards, winemaking facilities and cellars and you can also arrange for a vertical tasting of the Grand Vin.

Stop by the restored village of Bages in the heart of Pauillac. Some might say it’s a little Disney-like but it is a passion project of Jean Michel Cazes, owner of nearby Fifth Growth Chateau Lynch Bages. Enjoy a terrific bistro meal at Café Lavinal, shop at the butcher, baker and grocery shop and browse home wares at the bazaar. There’s a bike workshop and at Viniv you can collaborate with elite winemakers to produce your own barrel of premium Bordeaux wine.

The last Medoc region of Saint Estephe rises to a plateau soon after Pauillac. On the left is Chateau Lafon Rochet’s sunny yellow chateau which is a perfect foil for the elaborate Maharajah-like folly of Second Growth Cos d’Estournel on the right. Soon afterwards, farmland replaces vineyards and the grandeur of the Medoc reverts to tiny unassuming villages. Continue north to the quaint seaside town of Soulac sur Mer on the tip of the Medoc Peninsula then take the ferry across the Gironde and head down to Saint Emilion on the Right Bank.

Nearby is the fairytale Second Growth Chateau Pichon Longueville Baron, perhaps the most beautiful Neo-Classical chateau in the Medoc