What is dry white Bordeaux?

Two grapes carry it

The Bordeaux cahier des charges (the appellation’s official rulebook) names 4 principal white grapes (Sémillon (opens in a new tab), Sauvignon, Sauvignon Gris (opens in a new tab), and Muscadelle (opens in a new tab)) and 3 accessories (Colombard (opens in a new tab), Merlot Blanc (opens in a new tab), and Ugni Blanc (opens in a new tab)). Together the accessories may not exceed 30% of an estate’s white vines. Since 2021, 5 white trial varieties have joined them in stages, Alvarinho (opens in a new tab) and Liliorila (opens in a new tab) first, capped at 5% of the planting and 10% of the blend.

In the vineyard, 2 grapes carry the load. Sauvignon Blanc (opens in a new tab) and Sémillon are 87 white vines in 100; Muscadelle has 5, and Colombard, Merlot Blanc, Sauvignon Gris, and Ugni Blanc share the last 8. Sauvignon Blanc is the acid-driven one, with intense aromas of grapefruit, passion fruit, and boxwood. Sémillon is less acidic and brings texture, and Muscadelle adds a floral, spicy note.

The same grapes make Sauternes (opens in a new tab), so what keeps a white dry is a number, not a variety. A dry Bordeaux Blanc keeps 3 grams of sugar a liter or less, or up to 5 when its acidity is high enough.

Most of it is plain Bordeaux Blanc

Three bottles of dry white in 5 carry the regional name, and 1 in 5 says Entre-deux-Mers. That land between the Garonne and the Dordogne was recognized in 1937 for white alone and opened to red only with the 2023 harvest. Graves makes red and dry white south of the city, and sells its sweet white under another name, Graves Supérieures (opens in a new tab).

Pessac-Léognan, carved out of the Graves in 1987, is 86% red. Its classified growths (the ranked estates) hold their rank for red, for white, or for both, so a white can be a classified growth there.

Where the white cannot use the local name

Margaux (opens in a new tab), Pauillac (opens in a new tab), and the Haut-Médoc (opens in a new tab) are red-only appellations, and Sauternes is sweet only. A dry white grown inside them leaves the local name behind and is sold as Bordeaux Blanc, or as Médoc (opens in a new tab) white from the 2025 vintage where the Médoc rules allow it. Château Margaux (opens in a new tab) makes its white, called Pavillon Blanc du Château Margaux since 1920, from 12 hectares planted only to Sauvignon Blanc. Château d’Yquem (opens in a new tab) makes a dry white, Y, beside its Sauternes.

The rule can move. The Médoc appellation was opened to dry white by a ministerial order of July 31, 2025, after almost 90 years of red only.

Steel to drink soon, oak to keep

Dry white Bordeaux comes in 2 families. The first is fermented and aged in steel vats to keep the fruit pure and fresh: bright acidity, citrus and exotic fruit, floral notes, a wine for the near term. A typical Entre-deux-Mers, say 80% Sauvignon Blanc and 20% Sémillon, is the first kind.

The second is often fermented and aged at least partly in oak barrels, new or used, for a richer texture. That gives riper stone fruit, hazelnut, and a structure that allows several years of aging. Pavillon Blanc, for example, is aged for about 8 months, around 20% of it in new French oak barrels.

A red region that used to be white

White grapes, for dry and sweet wine together, are about a tenth of the Bordeaux vineyard: the CIVB (opens in a new tab) counts 89% red varieties and 11% white. It was not always so. The turn from white to red came in the 1970s, and before that white grapes covered most of the vineyard. Bordeaux Blanc is not a sideline that grew. It is what remains of the old majority.