Really to understand the Médoc, or the Bordeaux country as a whole, you have to know something of the strict, almost feudal system which has made, out of a generally unfertile province, the most celebrated wine-producing district of the world.
The Bordeaux country, which is about one-twentieth the size of New York State, and about one-seventieth the size of California, produces more than twice as much table wine as the whole United States. About four-fifths of this total is red, and the majority of it is nothing more than sound, pleasant table wine, which always has been and always will be consumed in France. Made from the Cabernet grape, plus a certain admixture of Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot, and Carmenère, it is blended, intended to be drunk young, and sold generally as “Bordeaux Rouge,” for this name is the lowest common denominator of all red Bordeaux wines. Literally it means a red wine, any red wine, from the Bordeaux country, and clarets from the better districts are never so labeled—they are entitled to other, more specific, and more honorable names. The less famous and less important such names include Côtes, Côtes de Blaye, Côtes de Bourg, Néac, and Fronsac; the more famous are the Médoc, Graves, St. Emilion, and Pomerol.
All of the great red wines of Bordeaux—those responsible for claret's international and enduring fame—come from these last four districts and, with a few exceptions, from certain especially favored townships, perhaps a dozen in all. The regional characteristics of each one of the four major districts are fairly pronounced, and the wines of each can generally be recognized without too much difficulty. Superficially and quickly, they can be defined as follows:
Médoc—north and west of Bordeaux. The classic fatherland of great claret and a whole wine country in itself. See farther on.
Graves—west and south of Bordeaux. Produces more red wine than white, although better known for its white. Its best reds (which include Haut-Brion) are excellent, a little softer and less definite in character than the Médocs. Someone once said that the Médocs are like gloss prints of a photograph, the Graves like prints on soft paper.
St. Emilion—east of Bordeaux, on the north bank of the Dordogne River. Its wines have been called “the Burgundies of Bordeaux.” To an uninitiated taste they will seem “sweeter” than the Médocs or Graves (actually, no red Bordeaux wine is in the slightest sweet); they are ready sooner, somewhat shorterlived, a bit higher in alcohol; they generally have less tannin, are softer, more obvious, less distinguished.
Pomerol—adjoins St. Emilion, and there are wines on both sides of the arbitrary border that no one could tell apart. The average quality of Pomerol is perhaps a little higher, since the officially delimited district is smaller, but there are a few St. Emilions (Ausone and Cheval Blanc, for example) better than the best Pomerols.
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