Some cities are so closely associated with one particular thing that their names eventually become almost synonymous with it. Bordeaux is one of them. Yet the city itself is only part of the story. Surrounding it is one of the world’s best-known wine regions: a vast landscape of vineyards, small villages and producers whose wines range from modest everyday bottles to vintages costing thousands of euros.
I spent a week travelling through the region. These are some of the impressions that remained with me.
Bordeaux lies in southwestern France, about 600 kilometres from Paris and not far from the Atlantic coast. The city stands on the River Garonne, in the historic region of Aquitaine. The climate resembles that of the Mediterranean in some respects, though with one significant difference: rain is by no means unusual in summer.
Bordeaux has been an important settlement since Roman times, and grapes have been cultivated here for almost two thousand years. Today the region produces more than 900 million bottles of wine annually—a quantity rather difficult to imagine.
The range is enormous. There are inexpensive table wines, respectable bottles for ordinary consumption and wines that cost a small fortune. Vineyards extend in every direction, surrounding the towns and villages scattered across the countryside.
The most famous of these—and probably the largest—is Saint-Émilion, a medieval town about 30 kilometres east of Bordeaux. It is also listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For anyone with time to visit only one place in the wine country, Saint-Émilion would be my choice. It appears not to have changed greatly in centuries.
Saint-Émilion is a town of stone buildings, narrow and often steep streets, and vineyards reaching almost to its outer walls. The main square is filled with cafés serving a constant flow of visitors from all over the world.
One might imagine that in a place so entirely devoted to wine, drunken people would be wandering through the streets at all hours. Nothing could be further from the truth. Here, wine is not primarily a means of becoming drunk. It belongs to a serious and deeply rooted culture of appreciation.
I took the following photograph of a wine shop in Saint-Émilion while standing just outside its door.
And now to the essential subject: the grapes.
Many varieties are grown in Bordeaux, but Merlot is the most widespread. Most producers do not make their wines from a single grape variety; instead, they blend several varieties in different proportions.
On the labels of more distinguished Bordeaux wines, the grape varieties are rarely given much prominence. What matters is the identity and style of the producer. Each château has its own blend, and the proportions may change from one vintage to another.
Less expensive wines are more likely to emphasise the grape variety. The more serious bottles present the producer, the château and the village. One should therefore not expect to find the word “Merlot” printed in large letters on the front of an important Bordeaux wine.
Besides Saint-Émilion, the best-known names include Saint-Estèphe, Pomerol, Margaux and Pauillac.
Immediately after leaving Saint-Émilion, the landscape begins to look like this.
And it continues in much the same way: vineyards everywhere. Thousands of producers transform each year’s harvest into hundreds of millions of bottles.
In recent years, competition from less expensive wines produced elsewhere in the world has made life more difficult for some local producers. The most prestigious wines, however, continue to sell extremely well, ensuring that at least some château owners remain quite content.
And this is where it all begins: a bunch of Merlot grapes still hanging on the vine.
From Saint-Émilion, we continue north towards Pomerol, another village whose wines can reach astonishing prices simply because the demand for them is so great.
As one approaches, there is a growing suspicion that the village will be very small. The suspicion proves correct. Pomerol has a population of only about 600 and does not even possess what one could properly call a village square.
This is the road into Pomerol.
Life here appears quiet and slow. It is difficult to believe that wines produced in such a small and unassuming place are sold throughout the world.
Like the other villages of the region, Pomerol is surrounded by vineyards belonging to estates known as châteaux. The term reflects older traditions of land ownership; many estates once included a large residence or an imposing winery building. Some still resemble castles. Others require a little more imagination, whatever their names may suggest.
Here is one near Pomerol.
Further north lies Margaux, another celebrated name in the world of wine. After driving for kilometres through vineyards, one arrives at yet another surprisingly small village.
Compared with Pomerol, Margaux almost seems substantial. It has around 1,500 inhabitants, a small square and several shops.
Welcome to Margaux.
It is difficult to determine where the village ends and the vineyards begin. The vines reach the streets and surround even the church and cemetery.
A small warning: picking grapes from the vineyards is not appreciated. This did not entirely prevent us from discreetly tasting one or two when nobody appeared to be watching.
Beyond the last houses, there are once again endless rows of vines, interrupted only by the occasional château.
Some of them genuinely do resemble castles.
One question naturally occurred to me: how can such an immense area possibly be harvested?
Most of the grapes are collected mechanically. It would be nearly impossible to do otherwise. The most valuable grapes, however, are still picked by hand, and during the harvest it is common to see workers moving through the vineyards with baskets.
The harvesting machines are interesting in themselves. They are large vehicles, not unlike combine harvesters, designed to travel between the rows and remove the grapes with as little damage as possible.
From a distance, the process looks like this.
Back on the road.
A journey through the Bordeaux wine region would be incomplete without Pauillac. Three of the five estates awarded the highest rank in the famous 1855 classification are situated here. Tasting wines at the level of Premier Grand Cru Classé is not an inexpensive activity.
Pauillac is as modest in appearance as the other villages, although it has a population of around 5,000 and even something resembling a main street.
Here it is.
The main street cannot be described as busy, although one is told that several cars may appear towards the end of the working day.
The village stands beside the Gironde estuary, its main street running parallel to the water. Behind it is a network of narrow streets, most of which look remarkably similar. There is not a great deal more to see.
That judgment may be slightly unfair. Pauillac does possess one memorable building: an old cinema that seems to have survived unchanged from the 1960s.
The sight of it made me wonder whether such places still existed. It reminded me of the cinema in Giuseppe Tornatore's movie Cinema Paradiso. Appropriately enough, this one is called Cinema Eden.
Beside it stands the village’s only shop selling local products. Entering it immediately alters one’s impression of Pauillac. Bottles priced at €700 or €800 sit quietly on the shelves.
The village may be simple. Its wines certainly are not.
Since few visitors are prepared to purchase bottles at such prices, some of these wines can be tasted by the glass. It should be added that this is not particularly cheap either.
Back on the road once more.
Having travelled through the wine country, it is finally time to visit Bordeaux itself.
With a population of about 250,000, Bordeaux is one of France’s larger cities. It has preserved much of its historic architecture while remaining lively and youthful.
The Romans developed Bordeaux as a port, and the city enjoyed a period of great prosperity during the eighteenth century. Its fortunes declined in the early twentieth century, but substantial investment in recent decades has transformed and revitalised it.
Bordeaux is especially impressive when seen from the banks of the Garonne.
The old warehouses and commercial buildings along the river have been restored and now contribute greatly to the character of the city.
There is no shortage of places to eat and drink, and social life is surprisingly active for a city of this size. Bordeaux also has a substantial cultural life and considerably more to offer than its worldwide association with wine might suggest.
The Grand Théâtre is one example.
I had only one afternoon to spend in Bordeaux, but it was enough to form a first impression. The main purpose of the journey, after all, had been to explore the surrounding wine region.
Before concluding, I should also mention where we stayed.
Throughout the trip, we stayed at La Maison Laurencine, a country house about 12 kilometres from Saint-Émilion and surrounded by vineyards. It had only four guest rooms, and the owners lived in the house themselves.
There are many places of this kind in the region. Ours was immaculately clean, carefully furnished and run by genuinely hospitable hosts. In spite of all this, the price was remarkably reasonable.
Here it is.
These, then, are my impressions of a region that takes the transformation of grapes into wine extremely seriously.
And perhaps rightly so. Wine has accompanied human civilisation for a very long time.
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