Moulis

moo-LEES ahn may-DOK

How to read this

Capitals mark the stressed syllable. “ahn” is a nasal vowel: say it through the nose, with no n. The recording is the reference.

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.

The place

Moulis lies in the middle of the Médoc peninsula, halfway between Margaux and Saint-Julien: a narrow ribbon 12 kilometers long, running inland at right angles to the estuary without ever reaching the water, its land lying mostly between 9 and 37 meters. The appellation is the commune of Moulis and named parcels of 3 neighbors, Castelnau-de-Médoc, Lamarque and Listrac-Médoc; Avensan and Cussac-Fort-Médoc were taken out when their growers stopped claiming it, and Arcins came out in the revision approved in 2020. The soil runs in 3 bands: Ice Age gravel to the northeast, clay and limestone from the center to the south, and more gravel to the west. The gravel suits Cabernet Sauvignon; the clay and limestone suit Merlot. The 634 hectares, about 4% of the Médoc’s vines, make an average of 25,000 hectoliters, in the hands of some 50 owners.

The rules

Red only, from Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère, Malbec (Cot in the rules), Merlot and Petit Verdot, with no share set for any of them. At least 7,000 vines a hectare, in rows no more than 1.50 meters apart, as in the other Médoc communes. Merlot must be picked at 189 g/l of sugar and the other varieties at 180; the wine must reach 11% of natural alcohol, at 57 hectoliters a hectare with a ceiling of 63. Destemming is compulsory, and the finished wine may keep no more than 2 g/l of sugar. It is raised until June 1 and sold from July 1 of the year after the harvest. The cahier des charges, the appellation’s official rulebook, was last modified on March 22, 2021.

The names

The label may read Moulis or Moulis-en-Médoc; the 2 names are 1 appellation. The name comes from the mills, the moulins, of the Middle Ages, when this was grain country; the vine came in the 13th century and made its name in the 19th. The syndicate was founded in 1936 and the appellation recognized by the decree of May 14, 1938. No estate in Moulis is ranked in the Classification of 1855; its standing was built in the bourgeois list of 1932, which named 34 properties of the commune, 14 of them Crus Bourgeois Supérieurs and one a Cru Bourgeois Supérieur Exceptionnel.

Color: Red
Communes: Moulis, with named parcels of Castelnau-de-Médoc, Lamarque and Listrac-Médoc
Vineyard: 634 hectares, about 4% of the Médoc; 25,000 hectoliters a year; some 50 owners
Soil: Ice Age gravel to the northeast, clay and limestone in the center and south, more gravel to the west; mostly 9 to 37 meters
Grapes: Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère, Malbec, Merlot, Petit Verdot
Density: 7,000 vines a hectare at least, rows no more than 1.50 meters apart
Yield: 57 hectoliters a hectare, ceiling 63
Alcohol: 11% natural at least; 189 g/l of sugar for Merlot, 180 for the others
Cellar: Destemming compulsory; 2 g/l of sugar at most in the wine
Release: From July 1 of the year after the harvest
Classified: 5 Crus Bourgeois in the classification of 2025
AOC since: May 14, 1938; cahier modified on March 22, 2021

Sources: FGVB, cahier des charges Moulis ou Moulis-en-Médoc, arrêté du 22 mars 2021 · FGVB, cahier des charges Moulis, les modifications de 2021

The stack

The same land in Moulis may also be labeled Bordeaux, Bordeaux Supérieur, Crémant de Bordeaux, Médoc and Haut-Médoc. A grower chooses which appellation to sell under, and the narrowest is almost always the dearest.

It shares named communes with Listrac-Médoc.

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

Classifications that reach this appellation: The Crus Bourgeois du Médoc.

Terroir

In Moulis a small stream opens onto a sea. Here and there in the bed of a brook (jalle), the Jalle de Castelnau, lies a shell sand (falun) full of sea snails and bivalves, left on a sea floor very close to the shore between 16 and 23 million years ago. In 1972, 2 geologists traced it along the stream bed. It surfaces in patches, and it does not appear among the shares measured below.

Older soil lies all around. Near Moulis a hard gray limestone carries a soft, crumbly yellowish one, full of small sea urchins. Then, on the south side of the Listrac dome, the shore turned to brackish mudflats, and their clays, studded with lime nodules, come to the surface over wide stretches between Moulis and Listrac.

Over much of the rest lies a thin cover of ice age gravel: plateaus with a rolling surface and brown, very stony soils. The same brook gathers the groundwater along the eastern edge, while most of that water runs the other way, toward the ocean. A small stream with an old sea in its bed.

1,078 ha delimited

Slope wash and cover30.5%
Ice age river terraces: sand, gravel, pebbles36.8%
Landes sand and the oldest river deposits10.4%
Starfish limestone and marine marls4.6%
Lake limestones and clays1.5%
Molasses: sands and clays of old rivers and lakes0.1%
Older sea limestones and marls16.2%

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 20 m, and 9 tenths lies between 9 and 37 m. 1.4% of it is steeper than 10%.

Measured section

The line runs 3.5 km, from 29 m to 5 m. Inside the delimited area it lies between 5 and 27 m.

Colors: Slope wash and coverIce age river terraces: sand, gravel, pebblesMolasses: sands and clays of old rivers and lakesOlder sea limestones and marls

Measured section: one elevation every 10 meters, west to east, along the whole of a 3.5 km line set across the appellation by a fixed rule, not chosen for the view (IGN, RGE ALTI 5 m), with the geology at the surface (BRGM, BD Charm-50). Heights stretched 20 times. The layers below the surface are not drawn.

The units, as BRGM prints them

Code	Name and age, as printed	Share
Slope wash and cover		30.5%
CFp	Formations superficielles	30.5%
Ice age river terraces: sand, gravel, pebbles		36.8%
Fvb(G)	Hautes terrasses (RG Garonne) - Terrasse de Martillac (type 2) indifférenciée et terrasse d'Arsac, Ménapien à Bavélien - "Gunz"	35.5%
Fva(G)	Très hautes terrasses (RG Garonne) - Terrasse de Léognan (type 1) indifférenciée et terrasse de Listrac, Waal - "Donau-Günz"	1.3%
Landes sand and the oldest river deposits		10.4%
Ft(Bn)	Formation de Belin, Tiglien - "Biber-Donau"	10.4%
Starfish limestone and marine marls		4.6%
g1-Ar	Calcaire à Archiacina, Rupélien marin	3.4%
g1-Ml	Marnes à Longirostris, Rupélien marin	1.2%
Lake limestones and clays		1.5%
g1-Ac	Formation de Castillon - Argiles Vertes de Castillon (et formation de la Bessède), Rupélien basal continental	1.5%
Molasses: sands and clays of old rivers and lakes		0.1%
	and 1 more unit under 1% each, 0.1% in all
Older sea limestones and marls		16.2%
e7b-A	Groupe de Plassac - Faciès régréssif d'Artigues, faciès à Anomies, Priabonien moy. marin	8.3%
e7b-C	Groupe de Plassac - Calcarenite, Priabonien moy. marin	1.4%
e7b-Ms	Groupe de Plassac - Marnes à sismondia occitana et ostrea bernonensis (supérieures), Priabonien moy. marin	4.5%
e7a-Ce	Groupe de Plassac - Calcaires de St Estephe, Priabonien inf. marin	1.9%
	and 1 more unit under 1% each, 0.1% 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 St-Laurent-et-Benon, Étang-de-Carcans à 1/50 000, 1977; INAO, Délimitation parcellaire des AOC viticoles (2026), laid over BRGM, BD Charm-50 Gironde, harmonized geological map.

Its soil, layer by layer · See it in 3D · See it on the Map · Compare it with another appellation · All about Terroir

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News from Moulis

Oct 23, 2026

Moulis president calls for a new Bordeaux image

In June, 29-year-old Théophile Cordonnier became president of the Moulis AOC and called for collective action to change perceptions that Bordeaux wines are too expensive and resistant to innovation.

The challenge is broader than promotion. Bordeaux must reconcile its prestige identity with the commercial realities facing appellations and producers outside the region’s most famous estates.

Source: Vitisphere Moulis The Fine Wine Market Estates and People
Aug 7, 2026

Eudémis pressure intensifies on the Bordeaux vineyard

Eudémis pressure intensified in parts of Bordeaux, with some traps capturing more than 200 moths per week in late July. Graves, southeastern Entre-deux-Mers, Listrac and Moulis were among the areas affected, while 53% of monitored parcels showed no significant activity.

Source: Vitisphere Entre-deux-Mers Graves Listrac-Médoc Moulis Vineyard and Cellar The Vintage