Appellations

The Bordeaux Appellations

Bordeaux is not one name. It is a pyramid of names, and every step up is a more exact promise on a smaller piece of land. Choose an appellation, choose a color, and climb.

Each step is an appellation the law allows on this land: the wider the step, the more land it covers. Tap a step, or climb.

The grapes this appellation allows

Vines on one hectare

Bottles from one hectare

How ripe the grapes must be

The earliest it may be sold

A page for every appellation written about here: the place, the rules from its own cahier des charges, the names, and the châteaux, tastings and news that belong to it.

The Médoc

  1. Haut-Médoc The appellation wrapped around the 6 communal names it does not contain: 28 communes from Blanquefort to Saint-Seurin-de-Cadourne, 5 growths of 1855 and 53 Crus Bourgeois, under rules rewritten in 2025. Red · 80 château profiles here
  2. Listrac-Médoc One commune on the Listrac dome, a broad bulge in the rock that brings old sea limestones and marls to the surface, red only, on gravel rises and clay and limestone, and a place the brokers of 1855 passed over. Red · 12 château profiles here
  3. Margaux The commune appellation with more classified growths of 1855 than any other, 21 of 61, on a plateau of Garonne gravel, under a name that reaches well beyond its own village. Red · 44 château profiles here
  4. Médoc The largest appellation of the peninsula, 50 communes without a single growth of 1855 and with more Crus Bourgeois than anywhere else, which since July 31, 2025 may make dry white as well as red. Red; dry white since 2025 · 46 château profiles here
  5. Moulis A ribbon of red wine country 12 kilometers long, halfway between Margaux and Saint-Julien, at right angles to the estuary and never touching the water: Ice Age gravel, clay and limestone, recognized in 1938. Red · 13 château profiles here
  6. Pauillac 3 of the 5 First Growths and 18 classified growths in all: Pauillac is the commune where 90% of the wine comes off classified vineyards. Red · 25 château profiles here
  7. Saint-Estèphe The northernmost of the 4 great communes, and the only one whose appellation stops at the commune line: gravel over clay and limestone, 5 classified growths and the most Crus Bourgeois of the 4. Red · 29 château profiles here
  8. Saint-Julien The smallest of the 4 great communes and the most classified: 11 growths of 1855 on a gravel rise, making about 90% of the wine. Red · 17 château profiles here

Graves and Sauternes

  1. Barsac Sweet white from one commune on a limestone plateau inside Sauternes, where the growers may choose the name on the label, Barsac or Sauternes, and work under the same strict rules. Sweet white · 11 château profiles here
  2. Cérons Sweet white from 3 communes of the Graves next to Barsac, a small appellation whose growers can make Graves on the same land, and mostly do. Sweet white · 2 château profiles here
  3. Graves The appellation named for its soil: gravel, over 55 kilometers of the left bank of the Garonne from the edge of Bordeaux to Langon, red and dry white, with its sweet wine now being folded into it. Red and dry white; sweet white as Graves Supérieures · 9 château profiles here
  4. Graves Supérieures The sweet white of the Graves, from the same 41 communes and part of Coimères, picked overripe by hand, and a name now being folded into Graves that may stay on labels through the 2028 harvest. Sweet white, more than 34 g/l of sugar · 1 château profile here
  5. Pessac-Léognan Carved out of the Graves in 1987 on the city’s doorstep: 10 communes that hold every Cru Classé de Graves, and Haut-Brion, the only estate in Bordeaux in 2 classifications. Red and dry white · 35 château profiles here
  6. Sauternes Sweet white only, from grapes picked over-ripe, by hand, in successive passes, at the lowest yield of any major Bordeaux appellation: 25 hectoliters a hectare, 15% of natural alcohol, 45 g/l of sugar left in the glass. Sweet white · 23 château profiles here

The right bank: Saint-Émilion, Pomerol, Fronsac and Castillon

  1. Canon-Fronsac The southwest corner of Fronsac, where the Isle meets the Dordogne: 2 communes of steep limestone slopes, 270 hectares and about 50 family estates, on the hill a geographer called the cradle of the great wines of the Libournais. Red · 5 château profiles here
  2. Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux Red only, from 9 communes on the slopes above the Dordogne where the battle of Castillon was fought in 1453, on starfish limestone, molasse and a lake limestone that carries the name of the place. Red · 9 château profiles here
  3. Francs Côtes de Bordeaux The heights at the eastern edge of the Libournais: 3 communes, Francs, Saint-Cibard and Tayac, making red, dry white and sweet white, an appellation since 1967 and a place name of the Côtes de Bordeaux since 2009. Red, dry white, sweet white (liquoreux) · 4 château profiles here
  4. Fronsac Red only, on the molasse slopes and limestone plateau west of Libourne where Charlemagne kept a fortress: 800 hectares and 100 growers, with Canon Fronsac inside it on 2 communes. Red · 12 château profiles here
  5. Lalande-de-Pomerol Red only from 2 communes across the Barbanne from Pomerol: some 40% larger than its neighbor, a little looser in its rules, and with a growers’ syndicate born in the phylloxera year of 1884. Red · 14 château profiles here
  6. Lussac-Saint-Émilion Red only from the commune of Lussac, north of Saint-Émilion, on slopes of sand and clay with a limestone plateau, sandier to the north: one of the 4 satellites entitled to add Saint-Émilion to their name. Red · 2 château profiles here
  7. Montagne-Saint-Émilion Red only from the commune of Montagne, north of Saint-Émilion, on sand and clay slopes around a starfish limestone plateau: one of the 4 satellites that carry the name, and outside the reach of its classification. Red · 7 château profiles here
  8. Pomerol Red only, 813 hectares of gravel over clay on a plateau above Libourne, worked in holdings of about 6 hectares, with no classification and no wish for one. Red · 49 château profiles here
  9. Puisseguin-Saint-Émilion Red only from the old commune of Puisseguin, northeast of Saint-Émilion, drawn as it stood before it took in Monbadon in 1989: hills of limestone and molasse, and one of the 4 satellites of Saint-Émilion. Red · 3 château profiles here
  10. Saint-Émilion 2 appellations on the same land, 8 communes and part of Libourne: Saint-Émilion and the stricter Saint-Émilion Grand Cru, the only Bordeaux appellation with a classification written into its rules, redone every 10 years. Red · 122 château profiles here
  11. Saint-Georges-Saint-Émilion Red only from the limestone and clay slopes of the old village of Saint-Georges, above the Barbanne stream and part of Montagne since 1973: 200 hectares, and one of the 4 satellites entitled to add Saint-Émilion to their name. Red · 3 château profiles here

Blaye and Bourg

  1. Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux The hills around the citadel of Blaye, above the Gironde, carry 3 appellations: Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux, the largest of the 5 Côtes de Bordeaux, and beside it the small, strict red Blaye and the white Côtes de Blaye. Red and dry white · 9 château profiles here
  2. Côtes de Bourg 15 communes at the mouth of the Dordogne, looking across the water at the Médoc, where Malbec covers about 10% of the vines, more than anywhere else in Bordeaux. Red and dry white · 11 château profiles here

Entre-deux-Mers and the right bank of the Garonne

  1. Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux 1 name, 2 appellations, on the slopes of the right bank of the Garonne facing Sauternes: the sweet white Cadillac, bottled where it is made, and the red Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux. Sweet white as Cadillac; red as Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux · 2 château profiles here
  2. Côtes de Bordeaux-Saint-Macaire White only, dry, medium sweet or fully sweet, from 10 communes around Saint-Macaire, a royal town of the English crown on the right bank of the Garonne, 40 kilometers upstream from Bordeaux. White: dry (sec), medium sweet (moelleux) or fully sweet (liquoreux) · 2 château profiles here
  3. Entre-deux-Mers The dry white of the country between the 2 rivers, 133 communes, recognized in 1937 for white alone and opened to red from the 2023 harvest, the largest change to a Bordeaux appellation in a generation. Dry white; red since 2023 · 3 château profiles here
  4. Graves de Vayres A Graves of its own, across the Garonne from the Graves: red and white from 2 communes in a bend of the Dordogne west of Libourne, a name its growers defended in court in 1928. Red; white, dry or with sugar · 3 château profiles here
  5. Haut-Benauge 1 place name that 2 appellations may add, in the hills of the Entre-deux-Mers around Targon: Entre-deux-Mers Haut-Benauge, a dry white, and Bordeaux Haut-Benauge, a white that may be dry or sweet, from 8 communes. White: dry as Entre-deux-Mers Haut-Benauge; dry or sweet as Bordeaux Haut-Benauge · 1 château profile here
  6. Loupiac Sweet white from one commune on the right bank of the Garonne, looking across the water at Barsac, where the grapes are picked by hand in successive passes and the wine keeps at least 45 g/l of sugar. Sweet white · 4 château profiles here
  7. Premières Côtes de Bordeaux A name with 2 lives: for 72 years it covered the wines of the hills on the right bank of the Garonne; since 2009 it belongs to sweet whites alone, with at least 34 g/l of sugar. Sweet white, at least 34 g/l of sugar
  8. Sainte-Croix-du-Mont Sweet white from one commune on a hill of marls and sandstone above the right bank of the Garonne, facing Sauternes across the river, where banks of fossil oysters show in the rock and caves are cut into it. Sweet white · 3 château profiles here
  9. Sainte-Foy Côtes de Bordeaux Red and white from dry to fully sweet, from 19 communes around the bastide of Sainte-Foy-la-Grande: the last place name to join the Côtes de Bordeaux, in 2016, and the only one with a moelleux. Red; white dry, moelleux or liquoreux · 3 château profiles here

The regional appellations

  1. Bordeaux AOC The appellation the whole region stands on: 494 of the 535 communes of the Gironde, red, white and rosé, with claret and clairet among them, recognized on November 14, 1936. Red, white, rosé; claret, a lighter red, and clairet, a darker rosé · 3 château profiles here
  2. Bordeaux Supérieur Bordeaux held to a higher bar: the same 494 communes, with denser planting, lower yields, riper grapes and a red that may not be sold before July 1 of the year after the harvest. Red and sweet white · 5 château profiles here
  3. Côtes de Bordeaux 1 appellation on 5 stretches of hillside that never touch, from the Gironde to the eastern edge of the department: red on its own, or red and white under one of 5 place names, on more than 10,500 hectares. Red; dry white under Blaye, Francs and Sainte-Foy; sweet white under Francs and Sainte-Foy · 1 château profile here
  4. Crémant de Bordeaux Sparkling white and rosé by the traditional method from 501 communes of the Gironde, picked by hand, pressed whole at 100 liters of must to 150 kilograms of grapes and kept 9 months on the lees. Sparkling white and rosé · 2 château profiles here

The appellations are stacked, not laid side by side. The map draws the whole stack on the land. Open the map