Two appellations in one commune
Sauternes (opens in a new tab) covers 5 communes on the left bank of the Garonne: Barsac (opens in a new tab), Bommes, Fargues, Preignac and Sauternes. Barsac is also an appellation of its own, recognized 19 days before Sauternes, by the decree of September 11, 1936. The Sauternes area takes in the commune of Barsac, so on Barsac’s land the 2 appellations overlap. That is why this commune has 2 names available and the others have 1.
The grower decides. A wine grown in Barsac may be labeled Barsac or Sauternes, and the rules are the same either way, down to the grapes, the picking by hand in successive passes through the vineyard, and the yield. About two thirds of Barsac goes out as Barsac and one third as Sauternes.
The door opens in one direction only. The Barsac appellation is the commune of Barsac and nothing else, so a wine from Preignac, next door, is a Sauternes and cannot be sold as Barsac.
What the name records is the soil. The rest of Sauternes is mostly gravel rises; Barsac is a plateau of limestone under a thin topsoil, where the cold Ciron runs into the Garonne.
North of Barsac, on the same bank, the sweet wine changes name once more: Cérons (opens in a new tab), recognized in 1936 over the communes of Cérons, Illats, and Podensac, outside Sauternes altogether. Its grapes are also picked by hand in successive passes.
One list for both
The brokers of 1855 did not separate them either. Their sweet-wine list ranks Sauternes and Barsac together, in 3 tiers. The 21 growths on the brokers’ list have become 27, as estates divided and one of them, Pexoto, was absorbed by a neighbor. Ten of the 27 are in Barsac.
One of the 5 communes holds more than a third of the list. A classified Barsac keeps its rank whichever name it puts on the label, because the rank belongs to the estate and the appellation is the grower’s choice.
Across the Garonne
On the right bank, on the limestone slopes that face Barsac and Sauternes across the river, 3 appellations make wine the Sauternes way, picked by hand in successive passes. None is classified, and each has its own rulebook, the cahier des charges.
Loupiac and Sainte-Croix-du-Mont, neighbors, were recognized on the same day as Barsac and keep almost the same rules. Cadillac, recognized by the decree of August 10, 1973, is the strictest of the 3 on sugar, both in the grapes and in the finished wine. The wine must keep 51 grams a liter against 45, and it must be bottled where it is made. What the right bank allows is a larger crop: 37 or 40 hectoliters a hectare against 25, about half as much wine again from the same vines.
Two more names make sweet white on that bank. Premières Côtes de Bordeaux (opens in a new tab) does it under less strict rules, and Côtes de Bordeaux-Saint-Macaire (opens in a new tab), farther upstream, makes a fully sweet wine among its whites.
Across the river the pickers make the same passes by hand. What they do not get is the name, or the rank.