Côtes de Bourg
How to read this
Capitals mark the stressed syllable. The French r comes from the back of the throat. The recording is the reference.
15 communes at the mouth of the Dordogne, looking across the water at the
The place
The rules
Red from Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec, also called Cot, as principal varieties, with Carmenère and Petit Verdot admitted to 5% of the vines since 2023; white from Sauvignon, Sauvignon Gris, Sémillon, Muscadelle and Colombard. The cahier des charges, the appellation’s official rulebook, asks 4,500 vines a hectare; 54 hectoliters with a ceiling of 65 for the red and 60 with a ceiling of 72 for the white; and 10.5% of natural alcohol for both. The red is sold from April 1 of the year after the harvest. The order of July 27, 2023 that admitted the 2 new varieties also banned weeding a whole plot with chemicals. The label may read Bourg,
The names
No classification. The reds were recognized in 1936 and the whites in 1941, and the frost of 1956 devastated the vineyard.
- Colors
- Red and dry white
- Communes
- 15, on the right bank at the mouth of the Dordogne
- Vineyard
- About 3,400 hectares; some 250 growers, 170 independent and 80 in cooperatives
- Grapes
- Red: Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, with Carmenère and Petit Verdot to 5%; white: Sauvignon, Sauvignon Gris, Sémillon, Muscadelle, Colombard
- Density
- 4,500 vines a hectare at least
- Yield
- Red 54 hectoliters, ceiling 65; white 60, ceiling 72
- Alcohol
- 10.5% natural at least
- Release
- Reds from April 1 of the year after the harvest
- Classified
- No classification
- AOC since
- 1936 for red, 1941 for white; cahier of July 27, 2023
Sources: FGVB, cahier des charges
The stack
The same land in
It shares named communes with
The appellations of Bordeaux are stacked, not laid side by side. The map draws the whole stack. Open the map
The pyramid of names shows what each step promises: vines a hectare, bottles, ripeness, day of sale, grapes. Climb from here
Terroir
Bourg once lent its name to a rock. In the Blayais, the starfish limestone (calcaire à astéries) went by "Calcaire de Bourg". The rock rarely lives up to its newer name, yet the Bourgeais is where the old naturalists found most of the loose starfish bones behind it. The town stands on its upper bed, and across 28.3% of the delimited area the same stone is the skeleton of the hills.
Quarried for centuries and shipped out by the estuary at its door, the stone left the bedrock "a real gruyère cheese," in the words of the 1977 map. Freshly laid, the stone is a fine golden color, and it cuts easily; Bordeaux builders used it heavily. After about a century it turns black.
Sands and gravel from an old delta cap the hilltops. In the valleys sheltered from the southwest wind lies a silt, ocher to red, that stains the fingers; near Marcamps it draped the valley sides and choked the Pair-non-Pair shelter, ending its use by prehistoric people. Where clay and limestone alternate, the soil creeps downhill in slow lobes. In a study published in 1973, J. Duteau wrote that the old saying, soil "changes at every step," fits the Bourgeais in particular. Take a step, and the soil has changed.
- River and estuary deposits of today0.9%
- Ice age river terraces: sand, gravel, pebbles0.6%
- Landes sand and the oldest river deposits20.3%
- Starfish limestone and marine marls28.3%
- Lake limestones and clays0.1%
- Molasses: sands and clays of old rivers and lakes46.3%
- Older sea limestones and marls3.4%
Shares of the delimited area, measured on BRGM’s geological map, in families by the age and rock its legend prints, youngest first.
Half its delimited soil lies above 36 m, and 9 tenths lies between 10 and 78 m. 19.6% of it is steeper than 10%.
Measured section
The line runs 12.9 km, from -2 m to 4 m. Inside the delimited area it lies between 4 and 85 m.
Colors: River and estuary deposits of todayIce age river terraces: sand, gravel, pebblesLandes sand and the oldest river depositsStarfish limestone and marine marlsMolasses: sands and clays of old rivers and lakesOlder sea limestones and marls
The units, as BRGM prints them
| Code | Name and age, as printed | Share |
|---|---|---|
| River and estuary deposits of today | 0.9% | |
| and 3 more units under 1% each, 0.9% in all | ||
| Ice age river terraces: sand, gravel, pebbles | 0.6% | |
| and 1 more unit under 1% each, 0.6% in all | ||
| Landes sand and the oldest river deposits | 20.3% | |
| SLb | Limons du Bougeais, pléistocène indifférencié | 9.2% |
| Ft(Bn) | Formation de Belin, Tiglien - "Biber-Donau" | 11.1% |
| Starfish limestone and marine marls | 28.3% | |
| g1-As | Calcaire à Astéries, Rupélien marin | 28.3% |
| Lake limestones and clays | 0.1% | |
| and 2 more units under 1% each, 0.1% in all | ||
| Molasses: sands and clays of old rivers and lakes | 46.3% | |
| e7-g1 | Molasses du Fronsadais indifférenciées, Priabonien sup. à Rupélien basal continental | 42.2% |
| e6-7 | Argiles à Paléotherium, Bartonien sup. à Priabonien inf. continental | 2.9% |
| and 2 more units under 1% each, 1.3% in all | ||
| Older sea limestones and marls | 3.4% | |
| e7b-Ms | Groupe de Plassac - Marnes à sismondia occitana et ostrea bernonensis (supérieures), Priabonien moy. marin | 1.0% |
| e7a-Ce | Groupe de Plassac - Calcaires de St Estephe, Priabonien inf. marin | 1.1% |
| and 4 more units under 1% each, 1.3% in all | ||
Informative figures, computed from INAO’s digitized parcel delimitation of October 12, 2026 and BRGM’s harmonized geological map (BD Charm-50); heights from IGN’s RGE ALTI 5 m. The plans held at the town hall are the legal reference. The delimited area is always somewhat larger than what is planted.
Sources: BRGM, Notice explicative de la feuille
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News from Côtes de Bourg
2
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Departing growers struggle to clear their final stocks
Retiring Bordeaux grower Lionel Lorente sent 850 hectoliters of 2023
Côtes de Bourg to a distillery on September 22 after finding no buyer, despite offering a tonneau for €500.The unsold stocks deepen the burden of leaving the sector and illustrate the severity of demand pressure at the production end of the market.
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Looking back at the first Odyssey of the Two Banks
Vignobles de l’Estuaire held its first Odyssée des deux rives tasting on Île de Patiras for local wine influencers and trade prescribers. Around forty growers presented red and white wines from
Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux ,Côtes de Bourg ,Médoc andHaut-Médoc .