Making Sense of Bordeaux: the World’s Most Famous Red Wine

To fully appreciate and understand wine, we should all have at least a fundamental knowledge of the wines of red Bordeaux, the world's most famous and influential wine. Like an aspiring artist learning to sketch before painting, the building blocks of red Bordeaux are foundational to the world's wines.

If you want to learn more about Bordeaux, consider attending one of my upcoming wine tastings where I do a deep dive on Left and Right Bank Bordeaux:

July 24 Tasting — Left Bank Bordeaux August 14 Tasting — Right Bank Bordeaux

The dominating permitted grape varieties alone are staggering in their importance: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot. Countries as far flung as Australia, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, New Zealand, China, Italy, and of course the United States continue to have considerable success with the wines from these grapes. In the case of Napa Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon has become synonymous with the region.

But it all begins in Bordeaux, the region in southwestern France that has provided red wine desired throughout the collecting world. Not only are there legendary chateaux that thrill wine lovers just by the mention of their names — Lafite-Rothschild, Mouton-Rothschild, Margaux, Latour, Haut-Brion and Petrus — there are hundreds, if not thousands of winery estates, some "classified growths", some "garagistes", some overachieving petits chateaux, and others making wine from one or a combination of the grapes I mentioned earlier.

For the record, there are white wines also grown and produced in Bordeaux, some very prized, some made to drink tonight made up of any or all of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadelle. Most are made dry, but some of the world's most celebrated sweet wines come from Sauternes, Barsac, and other small outcroppings. But their production is just 10-11% of the total.

There is a small amount of rosé produced in Bordeaux and a little bit of sparkling wine, but Bordeaux is red wine country for the vast majority of its production, and that is what I will focus on here.

Left Bank — Right Bank

If you glance at Bordeaux' geography, there are two rivers — the Garonne and the Dordogne — which converge to make up the Gironde estuary. In between the two rivers is a region known as Entre-Deux-Mers (between two seas) where much of the inexpensive white wine is produced.

What we call the "Left Bank" is the strip of land west of the Gironde and Garonne and just east of the Atlantic Ocean. There, north of the city of Bordeaux you will find the Médoc and its sub-regions Haut-Médoc, and the communes Moulis-en-Medoc, Saint-Julien, Pauillac, Saint-Estephe, and Margaux. This is where the famous "classified growths of 1855" are located, including most of the famous chateaux I mentioned earlier. Cabernet Sauvignon has been the dominant grape in most of the finer wines of the left bank. South of Bordeaux but still on the left bank are the appellations of Graves, Pessac-Léognan, Sauternes and Barsac.

The "Right Bank" is the land east and a bit north of the Dordogne river. It is dominated by the legendary appellations of the Libournais — Saint Emilion and Pomerol and its satellite regions Lalande-de-Pomerol, Cotes de Bordeaux, Saint-Emilion Saint Georges, Puisseguin Saint-Emilion and others. Merlot, an earlier ripening grape, has had more influence here, with Cabernet Franc a strong second and the others in more supporting roles.

A Splash of History

The Romans brought wine to Bordeaux 2,000 years ago, but much of the Médoc was unusable marshland until Dutch engineers were brought in to drain the swamps and create land suitable for vineyards in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Cabernet Sauvignon — itself a spontaneous cross of Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc — occurred in the 16th century possibly in the right bank vineyards of Saint-Emilion, but wasn't even mentioned in writing until the 1770s.

The red wines of Bordeaux, which the British called "Claret", were not thought highly of in the 1600s and most of the 1700s. Shipped by cask and bottled by local wine merchants, they were lighter, one-year wines meant to be consumed early. Samuel Johnson's famous quote "Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy" sums up the general attitude toward claret then. An exception were the wines of Chateau Haut Brion in what was then called Graves, now Pessac Léognan, which the diarist Samuel Pepys described on April 10, 1663: "a sort of French wine called Ho Bryan, that hath a good and most particular taste that I never met with." Haut Brion has lived on this notoriety ever since.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, there arose burgeoning international interest in the wines of Bordeaux, having by then evolved to make fine wines that could age well in the cold cellars of England, Holland and beyond. In order to promote the wines of Bordeaux further, Emperor Napoleon III had the wines of the Medoc classified by prestige in 1855 for a commercial expo in Paris that year (officially called Exposition Universelle des produits de l'Agriculture, de l'Industrie et des Beaux-Arts de Paris 1855). The classification ranking — First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth-growths, plus white wines and Sauternes — were largely determined by the prices they were fetching by the négociants of Bordeaux.

There are 61 classified growth chateaux included, with only four originally rated "first-growth" status — Lafite, Latour, Margaux from the Medoc and the legendary Haut Brion from Graves. The only two changes taken place since then were in 1856 when Cantemerle was added to 5th growth status, and in 1973 when Chateau Mouton-Rothschild was elevated from second growth to first growth. Interestingly, one lone estate — Chateau d'Yquem of Sauternes — received the highest ranking of all: Superior First Growth (Premier Cru Superieur). It had been Thomas Jefferson's favorite wine a half century earlier.

This system has worked very well for these chosen few chateaux, as the notoriety and prestige that came from their classifications has brought enough prosperity to do all the necessary maintenance of the vineyards and winemaking, especially in the modern era.

Ups and Downs and Today

When the Napoleonic codes were enforced in the early 1800s, most land estates in France were divided equally when inherited among the children of the deceased owner. The great estates of Bordeaux have avoided these divisions and remained intact over the past two centuries because the affluent port city of Bordeaux created corporate entities to keep their estates intact and avoid apportioning them from generation to generation. Since they were export-driven businesses, there was enough wealth to use these legal machinations to bypass the system of physically dividing land to heirs.

Bordeaux hasn't been immune to the effect of war and economic downturns, so many families have been forced to sell their ownership in times of economic stress. Today many estates are owned by investment firms, banks, insurance conglomerates and other wealthy investors who value these historic chateaux as prestige items in their portfolios.

Prices have gone up and down in response to the world economy. "Futures" buying, so popular after the American wine boom of the 1980s and 1990s, saw prices shoot up to stratospheric levels. When America dropped out of the futures market during the Great Recession of 2008-2010, newly affluent Chinese consumers were happy to jump in driving prices up even further. The 2013 film Red Obsession, narrated by Russell Crowe, details this recent history in dramatic and sometimes depressing effect.

After the Chinese hierarchy put the kibosh on all the excessive public spending, futures pricing took a big drop in the teens, only gaining a little steam in the 2020s until now. Wine-Searcher recently reported that Bordeaux prices are falling in 2026. A combination of lowering worldwide demand for wine in general, economic uncertainty and blistering heat waves have drastically reduced the prices of vineyard land in Bordeaux. I expect Bordeaux prices, except for the very top chateaux, to come down from their speculative highs. The leading chateaux will always be in peak demand, and remain for most of us special-occasion wines or aspirational dreams in our bucket lists.

I should further mention that climate change is a looming threat to not only Bordeaux, but to wines all over the world. As temperatures climb, grape growers are our canaries in the coal mines, where a degree or two can mean the difference between grapes that are perfectly balanced and those whose ripening has run amok and produce wines unable to age well.

For this reason, wine officials in Bordeaux have approved on an experimental basis some more heat-tolerant and disease-resistant varieties to be included in the official Bordeaux canon. They include crosses and Portuguese grape varieties, four red — Arinarnoa, Castets, Marselan, Touriga Nacional — and two white — Alvarinho (Albariño) and Lilorila, another cross. They are approved only for Bordeaux and Bordeaux Superieur wines. We are not likely to see them in classified growth Bordeaux for the near term, if ever.

Where the Bargains Are

Fortunately for wine lovers and those learning about wine, Bordeaux has been so productive and grape growing and winemaking so improved that their wines all across the board have never been better. Sure, there are oceans of perfunctory wines still being produced in Bordeaux, but the better petite chateaux are making superb wines that cost under $35-$60 a bottle, far less than many comparable domestic wines.

Another place to mine bargains are the second and third labels of major Chateaux, and those owned by classified growths like 2022 Madame de Beaucaillou Haut-Médoc ($32.99), a separate estate owned by the great 2nd Growth Chateau Beaucaillou of Saint-Julien.

Three wines — Chateau Montlandrie Castillon Cotes de Bordeaux ($44.99), Chateau Les Cruzelles Lalande de Pomerol ($48.99) and Chateau Capbern Saint-Estephe ($44.99) — just made the top ten wine bargains in Wine-Searcher's 2026 survey.

One incredible overachieving bargain — 2020 Chateau Chauvet Bordeaux Superieur ($14.99) — was our January Wine of the Month and continues to be our top Bordeaux seller as recently as July. By perusing The Wine Country's selection of Red Bordeaux, you will see an amazing array of historic wines and overachieving petite chateaux that will suit any budget. If you are new to wine, start with wines labeled Bordeaux and Bordeaux-Superieur, working your way up to Haut-Médoc and the satellite regions near Saint-Emilion and Pomerol like Lalande de Pomerol and Saint Georges de Saint-Estephe. If you are impassioned to explore further, then by all means sample some second label wines from top estates, then if your budget allows, enjoy some bottles of classified growths.

By this time, you'll be getting a feel for Bordeaux and understand why the world is still obsessed with its wines. When I was first learning about wine and curious to know more, I'd meet with like-minded friends for blind tastings of wines by variety or region. One of those events was a collection of six wines from Saint-Julien. I still remember the crushed berry character we found in all of the wines. Subsequent tastings over the years have revealed the harder character of Saint-Estephe, the elegance of Margaux and the stateliness and sheer Cabernet joy of Pauillac.

Right bank reds from Saint-Emilion and Pomerol will seduce you with their easier-going suave textures and flavors from their Merlot-dominant blends. It may even signal a new respect for the oft-maligned variety!

And as always, I encourage you to attend as many Bordeaux tastings as you are able, because experience is always the greatest teacher.

July 24 Tasting — Left Bank Bordeaux August 14 Tasting — Right Bank Bordeaux Shop All Red Bordeaux