Well, they’re less highly regarded by the wine trade and therefore they are little more affordable. So if you know about wines, well, you get all the positive features that I’ve talked about from the wines, but not the high price tags. When you know you win, and now you know.
Hello bonjour, dear wine enthusiast, and welcome to your new wine video. What are the best Bordeaux wines and which are the best value Bordeaux wines? These are questions I get asked all the time. And you’ve probably asked yourself this as well. You can’t just name one appellation, say Pomerol or Margeaux, or point out one specific chateau and expect to be accurate in providing a definite answer.
What I want to highlight for you today, however, is an area of Bordeaux that I absolutely love, where I actually worked in for several years. And more importantly, that delivers some of the absolute finest French wines, but also an area where you will unmistakably find great value wines, age worthy wines, interesting expressive, French cabernet based wines too. Let me take you on a little tour of the Graves subregion of Bordeaux. It’s important as a region and fascinating for you.
Origins of Graves Wine’s Reputation
Let me first introduce you to the Graves in general terms so you get to know the area and at the end of this video, I will give you my personal take on them. So make sure to stay tuned until the end. Or maybe skip to the last part if you already know all the general details. Graves is a wine region located on the left bank of the Garonne River in Bordeaux, south east of the city of Bordeaux.
And it is one of the oldest and most diverse wine regions in Bordeaux indeed, producing red wine and also white wine and also sweet wines. So always high quality and quite high reputation as well. The name of itself comes from the gravelly soils that characterizes the region, which are ideal for viticulture, as we know. Graves has a really long and rich history of wine production as well, dating back to the Middle Ages.
Of course, as is often the case in France, it was significantly the main source of wine exported to England through the Middle Ages. The region is considered to be the birthplace of, in fact, claret, which is these very famous type of lighter red wine that was sold in England at the time. The region is also home to Chateau Haut Brion, one of the four original first growth grand cru classés of the original 1855 classification of Bordeaux wines.
So one of the very best, absolute best chateau in Bordeaux is in fact in Graves.
The Varied Appellations in Graves
And Graves is divided into several appellations, each with its own style and slightly different terroir. The most prestigious and most famous appellation is Pessac-Léognan, which was created as late as 1887 as a separate area for the northern part of Graves closest to the Bordeaux City.
Pessac-Léognan produces some of the finest red wines and white wines in Bordeaux, indeed, with a distinctive smokey and mineral character, some of the most renowned estates in Pessac-Léognan include Château Haut-Brion as we discussed, Château La Mission Haut-Brion, which is their neighbors, Château Pape Clément and Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte. Legends. The southern part of the Graves is covered by the Graves AOC or AOP, which produces red wines and dry whites alike.
The red wines are typically made from a blend of mainly Cabernet Sauvignon, merlot, Cabernet franc in particular, though the typical Bordeaux blend, while the white wines are made from Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadel. So both are blended. The red wines are medium bodied, fruity, elegant, while the white wines are crisp and aromatic and refreshing. Often some are barrel aged as well, have also includes the famous sweet wine appellation of the Sauternes, which is located in this small area northwest of a city called Langon.
Sauternes obviously produces some of the most sought after inexpensive, decent dessert wines in the world, like Chateau d’Yquem, but also Chateau Rieussec Chateau Suduiraut, Chateau Climens, just to name a few, but we’ll have to cover sort down in a very separate specific video. Subscribe to the channel if you’re not already so you don’t miss that one when it comes out.
Graves Main Take-aways
So this was your Graves area wines generally introduced. But what do I think personally about Graves wines? Why do I intimately endorse them, beyond the fact that I have loads of professional winemaking memories in this place, in this area? Well, first, I love Graves because wines heavily rely on Cabernet Sauvignon rather than merlot. And I do love a fine Cabernet because we are on the left bank because the soils of Graves are quite sandy and gravelly as well.
Well, Cabernet is definitely at home in the left bank and it ripens really well because those sorts, this type of soil is quite warm. So wineries use a solid proportion of Cabernet sauvignon in their blend. But what is particularly interesting also in the Graves, beyond just being a Cabernet, cabernet there is a little looser, a little lighter in body, in tannins, it’s not as dense and tannic and structured than further in the north, in the Medoc.
So here in Graves you get wines that are one, a little more approachable, easier to drink because they’re a bit lighter. Two, they age a little faster as well, so you don’t have to wait for ten years or more before you can actually enjoy all that complexity and density.
And that’s really important from an average consumers perspectives, right? Three because of the two previous reasons, well, wines aren’t that expensive here because they’re a little lighter and often not as age worthy. Well, they’re less highly regarded by the wine trade and therefore they are a little more affordable. So if you know about wines, well, you get all the positive features that I’ve talked about from the wines, but not the high price tags: when you know, you win.
And now you know, so if you want the best value wines, investigate and target the chateaux of the Graves appellation specifically because they sell for less money than the price, and yet they deliver excellent quality. If you want names, well, look into Chateau de Chantegrive, Chateau Ferrande, Chateau Villa Bel-Air, or the wines that used to be made by my regretted professor at the winemaking university of Bordeaux, Denis,
that’s the estate Clos Floridène or of course the wine we are sending out to our Bonner wine club members. We love our members and we give them delicious wine, Chateau Lalande-Poitevin, which is absolutely delicious. Now if you have a little more money, you can go with Pessac-Léognan, which is the more prestigious name.
They’re a little pricier, but often also a little deeper and a little denser and a little more age worthy as well. But still excellent value for Bordeaux. I love Chateau La Louvière, Chateau de Rochemorin, because I used to work there, and they’re really delicious and excellent and fantastic value. Chateau Carbonnieux, Chateau Olivier, Latour-Martillac, are staples in this area.
Outstanding value wines, delicious. Now, if you want the very, very best, of course you can always go for Haut-Brion or La Mission Haut-Brion or Domaine de Chevalier, but that would be quite a few hundreds of dollars for a bottle. Finally, the whites from Pessac-Léognan and Graves are amongst my favorite wines in the entire world, in the entire universe, for sure.
And I would argue the best and the most age worthy Sauvignon blanc based whites on the planet, nothing less. Often they are barrel fermented, which is rare. They’re absolutely outstanding. Look into them, try them and let me know in the comments what you think about the whites from the Graves and Pessac-Léognan, and also about Graves in general and what you thought about this video in the comments.
Any feedback is appreciated for me. Graves is a wine region that offers a wide range of different styles and qualities from everyday drinking wines. Very affordable bordeaux’s of good quality, reliably good quality to collectible masterpieces. It is a region that reflects its history. The terroir, the diversity, and it deserves absolutely to be explored by any wine lover. And not that many people actually explore it and investigate now at least.
Well, you know. Stay tuned to the channel to learn ever more about wine, I suggest this video next where I compare the Bordeaux style versus Rhone style wines from France and the rest of the world. Or you can watch this playlist right here where you can learn tons and tons about wine, tons of wine content on this channel.
Take care and we will see you soon in the wonderful world of wine. Cheers.
