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Right bank Appellations

Saint-Emilion

5,500 hectares of vines I 800 producers I 35 million bottles a year

Nine communes around the small town of Saint-Emilion, around 50 kilometres

east of Bordeaux, are entitled to use this AOC. The principal variety is Merlot.

The Saint-Emilion Grand Cru designation is reassessed every year, while the

Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classé A (4 estates), Premier Grand Cru Classé B (14

estates) and Grand Cru Classé (65 estates) classifications are reviewed every ten

years or so. The best wines come from the limestone plateau and its slopes of

clay over limestone around the town, and from a gravel, clay and sand terrace

to the north-west of the region (commune of Figeac – Cheval Blanc). The soils at

the foot of these slopes (Pied de Côtes) consist of clay, sand and gravel. Merlot

(around 60%) is supplemented by Cabernet Franc and a little Cabernet Sauvi-

gnon. Specific locations have a signi

fi

cant impact on the style: subtle and excep-

tionally elegant but with good aging potential (plateau), lively and dense medi-

um-bodied wines (slopes and lowlands), particularly fruity with character and

finesse (Figeac), characterised by woody notes and rich in extract in the style of

a Bolgheri (modernists), or compact and sharp (lowlands along the Dordogne).

Pomerol

800 hectares of vines I 150 winemakers I 4 million bottles a year

Pomerol, an oval four kilometres long and three kilometres wide on the right

banks of the Garonne and Dordogne, is the smallest of the large Bordeaux ap-

pellations in terms of size. The best ferrous loam soils with varying proportions

of clay and gravel can be found on the ‘plateau' around the church. In the west

towards the Isle – the Gironde's third river – the soils contain clay and sand and

produce lighter wines. In the east, Pomerol adjoins the vineyards of Saint-Emil-

ion (Figeac and Cheval Blanc estates). Merlot is the main variety at 80% and

produces elegant, velvety, full-bodied yet smooth wines.

Fronsac / Canon-Fronsac

1,100 hectares of vines I 150 producers I Around 8 million bottles a year

These two neighbouring appellations stand on a horseshoe-shaped chain of

hills between the Dordogne and the Isle, at a somewhat higher altitude than

those in Pomerol and Saint-Emilion in a relatively windy location, which has a

major impact on the maturation process and style of wine. Only a few winemak-

ers, mostly members of the Expression de Fronsac cooperative, produce great

wines. Clay over molasse and limestone soils, around 80% of which are planted

with Merlot, produce the most ‘Italian' of all the Bordeaux wines with angular

yet also astonishingly fresh tannins, offering extract and high levels of alcohol

which ensure long aging in the best examples.