Bordeaux vs Bordeaux Supérieur, rule by rule

Two appellations on one map

Bordeaux was recognized on November 14, 1936, and Bordeaux Supérieur on October 14, 1943. Both can be made anywhere in the same 494 communes of the Gironde, from the same 6 red grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon (opens in a new tab), Cabernet Franc (opens in a new tab), Merlot (opens in a new tab), Malbec (opens in a new tab), Carmenère (opens in a new tab), and Petit Verdot (opens in a new tab). Most Bordeaux Supérieur comes from the Entre-deux-Mers (opens in a new tab).

The appellation has 12,191 hectares planted, and its wine is almost all red. What separates the 2 appellations is written in their cahiers des charges (each appellation’s official rulebook). These were approved on May 13, 2026, for Bordeaux and on June 4, 2026, for Bordeaux Supérieur.

Every rule points the same way

Rule	Bordeaux	Bordeaux Supérieur
Colors	Red, white, rosé; claret (a light red) and clairet (a dark rosé)	Red and sweet white only
Vines per hectare, plantings since 2008	At least 4,000 (3,300 under special provisions)	At least 4,500
Red yield	60 hl/ha (ceiling 68)	58 hl/ha (ceiling 66)
White yield	67 hl/ha (ceiling 77)	49 hl/ha (ceiling 60)
Sugar in the ripe grapes, red	189 g/l for Merlot, 180 for the others	198 g/l for Merlot, 189 for the others
Natural alcohol, red	10.5%	11%
Natural alcohol, white	10%	12%
Sugar in the white wine	3 g/l or less for a dry white (5 with high acidity); sweet allowed	More than 17 g/l, from grapes picked at 195 g/l
Red aged at least until	December 31 of the harvest year, claret excepted	June 15 of the following year
Red on sale from	January 15 after the harvest	July 1 after the harvest

Fewer hectoliters from each hectare, more sugar in the grapes before they are picked, and nearly 6 months more before the red may reach a shop. The white of Bordeaux Supérieur is a different wine altogether. It must keep more than 17 grams of residual sugar a liter, so it is sweet, while Bordeaux makes its white dry or sweet.

What the rules cannot do

They cannot move the vineyard. Both appellations cover the same land, so Supérieur tells you nothing about the soil or the slope. It is not a classification either: no classification covers Bordeaux or Bordeaux Supérieur. The word sits on the label where a rank would sit on a classified growth, which is why it is so easy to misread.

What the rules do fix is a floor. A Bordeaux Supérieur red was grown at lower yields, picked riper, and aged longer before sale than a Bordeaux red is required to be. The calendar makes it concrete. A red Bordeaux of the 2025 vintage could be in a shop from January 15, 2026; a red Bordeaux Supérieur of the same vintage had to wait until July 1, 2026.

Those are real differences in the wine. A careful grower in plain Bordeaux may still work above every Supérieur minimum, and nothing in either rulebook stops that grower.

So, is it better?

It is stricter, which is not the same promise. The word guarantees the numbers in the table and nothing beyond them: a wine made under tighter rules from the same land. The producer’s name tells you more than the word.