One gravel country, 2 appellations
Graves (opens in a new tab) is named for its soil: pebbles, stones, and gravel of every size, mixed with silt and clay and resting on sand or on alios, the local ironpan. The zone is 55 kilometers long and about 10 wide, from the suburbs of Bordeaux south to Langon, with the Sauternes (opens in a new tab) and Barsac (opens in a new tab) enclave cut out of it. The appellation dates from March 4, 1937. In the CIVB (opens in a new tab)’s figures it covers 3,350 hectares in 42 communes, worked by 200 growers.
Pessac-Léognan (opens in a new tab) is the northern end of the same country, on the city’s doorstep: 10 communes, from Pessac and Talence in the suburbs to Léognan and Martillac. Their growers campaigned, with André Lurton at their head, for an appellation of their own, and got it by the decree of September 9, 1987. The soil is the grabas de Bourdeus, Gascon for the gravel of Bordeaux, rolled by the rivers over clay, sand, alios, and fossil shell beds.
The city has taken its share. More than 3,000 hectares of vines were lost to it between the start of the 20th century and the 1970s. About 1,880 remain, 86% of them red, in the hands of some 56 estates. More vineyard has gone under the suburbs than is left.
The same grapes, stricter rules in the north
| Graves | Pessac-Léognan |
|---|
| Colors | Red and dry white; sweet white as Graves Supérieures (opens in a new tab), a name that may stay on labels through the 2028 harvest as the sweet wine is folded into Graves | Red and dry white |
| Red grapes | The 6 Bordeaux varieties | The 6 Bordeaux varieties |
| White grapes | Sémillon (opens in a new tab), Sauvignon, Sauvignon Gris (opens in a new tab), Muscadelle (opens in a new tab) | Sémillon, Sauvignon, Sauvignon Gris, Muscadelle |
| Vines a hectare, at least | 5,000 | 6,500 |
| Vineyard | 3,350 hectares, 200 growers | About 1,880 hectares, 86% red, some 56 estates |
| Classified growths | None | All 14 Crus Classés de Graves (opens in a new tab) |
The 2 appellations make the same colors from the same grapes. What separates them is where the classified growths stand, and stricter rules in the north. On a shelf, Pessac-Léognan is the name the classified growths carry, and plain Graves comes from the longer stretch to the south.
A list older than its appellation
The INAO, the French body that governs appellations, had a jury classify the wines of the Graves in 1953, and the minister of agriculture approved the list in August of that year. The decree of February 16, 1959, completed it for the white wines: 16 estates and 22 wines. There is one rank, Cru Classé, and the only distinction is the color each estate is classified for. Nothing has been added since. Two names have gone, both into Château La Mission Haut-Brion (opens in a new tab): La Tour Haut-Brion (opens in a new tab), whose last vintage was 2005, and Laville Haut-Brion (opens in a new tab), labeled La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc from the 2009 vintage.
| Classified for | Estates |
|---|
| Red and white | La Mission Haut-Brion, Bouscaut (opens in a new tab), Carbonnieux (opens in a new tab), Domaine de Chevalier (opens in a new tab), Latour-Martillac (opens in a new tab), Malartic-Lagravière (opens in a new tab), Olivier (opens in a new tab) |
| Red | Haut-Brion, de Fieuzal (opens in a new tab), Haut-Bailly (opens in a new tab), Pape Clément (opens in a new tab), Smith Haut Lafitte (opens in a new tab) |
| White | Couhins (opens in a new tab), Couhins-Lurton (opens in a new tab) |
The list was complete by 1959, 28 years before Pessac-Léognan existed, and every estate on it stands inside the new appellation. That is why no classified growth of the Graves is sold as Graves. Together the classified growths make about one fifth of Pessac-Léognan’s wine.
Haut-Brion in both lists
Jean de Pontac acquired Haut-Brion in 1533 and began building the château in 1549. In 1855 it was the only red growth outside the Médoc (opens in a new tab) in the whole list, ranked among the First Growths, and in 1953 it went onto the Graves list too, for its red. It is the only estate in both the Classification of 1855 (opens in a new tab) and the Crus Classés de Graves, and since 1987 it has carried an appellation that did not exist when either list was drawn up.