Bordeaux

So why Bordeaux? Let’s forget for a second that Bordeaux is some of the most reputed and most expensive wine on the market. Is there any justification for those prices and reputation? Coming from an economics background, I’m personally a big believer in the market as a means of distinguishing quality through price—i.e. there should, in any market, be a positive correlation between quality and price.  I can not only say that the economic intuition holds up, but I’ll point out some of the cultural, historical, and geographic factors that have contributed to that.

I’ll start off with a bit of history. Interestingly enough, production of wine in the Bordeaux region started with the Romans, who would plant grapes in any colony that they conquered. After a conquest, the nearby water sources would typically be too polluted to drink safely. To maintain the legions, the Romans would have to purify that water through some means. Thus, they’d plant grapes with which they’d make light wine (6-7% ABV) to mix with water. The ethanol in the wine would kill the bacteria in the water. So, oddly enough, the Bordeaux wine started off with purely a functional reason, rather than with what I’d typically associate with a Bordeaux, i.e. luxury.

Fast forward to the 1800′s (forgive me for skipping the 1500 years+ of history). Bordeaux wine as Bordeaux really came into existence with the world fair of 1855. The designation of Bordeaux was given, and the prime houses were distinguished. Bordeaux merchants based the classification on wine prices for the past 100 years. Thus, houses that produced more prized and more expensive wines naturally received higher classifications, according to the general consensus about their quality. The designation still holds to this day.

In this system, there are five different “growths” or crus, classes designated according to historical prestige and general quality. In the modern age, of course, the quality criterion is becoming less and less explicit, as winemaking techniques and quality are converging throughout the region. The higher crus do, however, still charge far higher prices. To this day, there has only been one change in the classification, which occurred in 1973 when a second-growth winery, Mouton-Rothschild, was elevated to a first-growth—a huge political issue at the time. Generally, though, the system is rather inflexible.

Just to give you an idea, I’ll list out the highest crus, the most prized in Bordeaux:

First-Growths (Premiers Crus)

• Lafite-Rothschild
• Latour
• Margaux
• Haut-Brion

Second-Growths (Deuxièmes Crus)

• Mouton-Rothschild (elevated to First-Growth in 1973)
• Leoville-Las Cases
• Leoville-Barton
• Leoville-Poyferre
• Ducru-Beaucaillou
• Pichon Longueville-Baron
• Pichon Lalande
• Gruaud-Larose
• Cos d’Estournel
• Montrose
• Lascombes
• Rauzan-Segla
• Rauzan-Gassies
• Brane-Cantenac
• Durfort-Vivens

Just as important of a historical development as the appellation system, though, was the Napoleonic code. The Bordeaux region, being so distinguished, was saved from the impacts of that code, which eliminated primogeniture, the (legally enforced) custom of passing the family land down to only the eldest child. The elimination of primogeniture from any society generally helps redistribute wealth, passing the great holdings of families down to more and more children, fragmenting those holdings. That fragmentation, however, doesn’t bode well for wine production. With great terroirs divided into smaller parcels, the consistency of the grapes diminishes, making wine more inconsistent. It is for that reason that even to this day, wine from Burgundy will tend to be more inconsistent than Bordeaux, since the Napoleonic Code, and thus the sanction against primogeniture, did reach Burgundy. The large estates in Bordeaux, however, were able to stay intact. With a larger selection of grapes, the large families in Bordeaux can thus attain more predictable results, justifying the higher prices.

Adding to that historical push is just as influential a geographic one. Before I discuss the characteristics of the terroir, though, I want to give an overview of the general regions and appellations. There are three major regions in Bordeaux: Médoc (Left-Bank), Graves, Libournais (Right-Bank). Graves, named after the heavy amount of gravel in the region, is the chief white wine-producing region, while Médoc and Libournais both specialize in reds. There is also a less important region for lower quality whites, the Entre-Deux-Mers (literally, “between two rivers” region). The most important appellations for each region (i.e. the best sub-regions) are:

Médoc

• St. Estephe
• Pauillac
• St. Julien
• Margaux

Graves

• Pessac-Leognan
• Sauternes & Barsac

Right-Bank

• St. Emilion
• Pomerol

The grapes, too, are very limited. The 2 major red grapes are Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Bordeaux reds can, in fact, only be made using six different varietals: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot, and Carmenere. For practical purposes, though, the wines are basically Merlot and/or Cabernet Sauvignon blends, with everything else used in small quantities, to the point that some grapes are de facto non-existent (Carmenere is virtually never used. Malbec is used infinitesimally).

That limitation to certain grapes, though, does have a legitimate reason: Those grapes just tend to grow and taste better in the region. The best vines, i.e. the deepest, require both water and quick drainage. Soil with deep gravel beds, as opposed to heavier clay or sand, tends to drain more quickly. The drainage allows for better vines, which allow for better wines. This largely explains why Médoc, the Left-Bank, tends to produce so many fine wines, since the soil has a high gravel concentration. That drainage is particularly important for Cabernet grapes—hence the reason the Left-Bank specializes in Cabernet. As you move north in Médoc, the clay concentration picks up, such as in the St. Estephe subregion, lowering the quality of wines. The Right-Bank similarly tends to have higher concentrations of clay. Since Merlot performs better in worse-drained soils with higher concentrations of clay, it is, not surprisingly, the main grape of the Right-Bank.

The climate of the region plays a large role as well. The 55-year trend in Bordeaux indicates a move towards warmer climates, i.e. Bordeaux is feeling the impacts of global warming. That, however, has also contributed to the phenomenal vintages of the past decades. During the tasting, we had the opportunity to look at a chart of Bordeaux climate year-by-year, and the years with the best vintages tended to nearly always include hot summers followed by low amounts of rain during harvest time. A good example would be 2005. Low water at harvest forces the grapes to work harder to hold onto their water. Thus, they do not become diluted right before harvest, amplifying their flavor.

You may be wondering, though, what this means in practice—i.e. what are the best Bordeaux vintages? Mr. Vogt recommends all of the following: 1982, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2009.

Another factor to mention is the aging potential of Bordeaux wine, which is some of the highest for any known wines. High-quality wines tend to peak at 8-12 years, at least from what I’ve seen in South America. French wine, though, is extremely long-lasting. The aging potential for a few of the more famous designations/regions are:

• Pomerol: 5-20 years
• St. Emilion: 5-20 years
• Medoc: 10-40 years
• Sauternes: 5-100 years