Bordeaux

Bordeaux stands as the benchmark against which all serious red wines are measured. Straddling the Gironde estuary in southwestern France, this vast region encompasses over 110,000 hectares of vines and produces more AOC wine than any other French region. The region divides naturally along its rivers. The Left Bank (Médoc, Graves) features gravelly soils that favor Cabernet Sauvignon, producing structured, tannic wines built for decades of aging. The Right Bank (Saint-Émilion, Pomerol) has more clay and limestone, where Merlot thrives, creating rounder, more approachable wines. Bordeaux invented the modern wine trade. The 1855 Classification ranked the Médoc's top estates into five growths—a hierarchy that largely endures today. Names like Lafite, Latour, Margaux, and Haut-Brion became synonymous with excellence. Beyond the famous reds, Bordeaux produces exceptional dry whites from Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon in Pessac-Léognan, and the world's greatest sweet wines in Sauternes and Barsac, where noble rot concentrates sugars to extraordinary levels.