Is Bordeaux a grape? No, it is a place

A place with a rulebook

Bordeaux is a city on the Garonne, the vineyard around it in the Gironde, and an appellation. The appellation Bordeaux was recognized by a decree of November 14, 1936, and covers 494 of the Gironde’s 535 communes (townships), nearly the whole department. Its cahier des charges (the appellation’s official rulebook) says which grapes may be planted, how many vines go to a hectare, and how much wine each hectare may give.

The grape is one line in that rulebook. The name on the label is the place.

American law reads the name the same way. The federal labeling rules list Bordeaux Blanc and Bordeaux Rouge, along with Graves (opens in a new tab), Médoc (opens in a new tab), and Saint-Julien (opens in a new tab), among the names that are not generic: names of wines from a particular place, not types of wine. Claret, by contrast, sits on the list of semi-generic names.

The famous grape is not the common one

The rulebook admits 6 red grapes and 7 white, and 2 of the reds dominate the vineyard. Merlot (opens in a new tab) is 2 red vines in 3; Cabernet Sauvignon (opens in a new tab) is about 1 in 5. The grape most people connect with Bordeaux is Cabernet Sauvignon. The grape Bordeaux grows most is Merlot.

Which one leads depends on the soil. Cabernet Sauvignon leads on the gravel of the Left Bank, in the Médoc and Graves, and Merlot on the clay of the Right Bank, in Saint-Émilion (opens in a new tab) and Pomerol (opens in a new tab). The rule breaks where the soil does: Château Figeac (opens in a new tab), on gravel in Saint-Émilion, is planted mostly to the 2 Cabernets.

What a Bordeaux-style blend and Meritage promise

A Bordeaux-style blend, on a wine list or a back label outside France, is a description. It names the grapes, not the place, and the wine can come from anywhere. It usually means a red built from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and other Bordeaux grapes.

Meritage is something narrower. It is a certification mark registered in the United States in 1993, and it certifies a wine blended entirely from classic Bordeaux varieties. It belongs to the Meritage Alliance, founded in 1988, whose member wineries may print it. The word rhymes with heritage and is pronounced the English way.

The rules are specific. A red Meritage blends at least 2 of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc (opens in a new tab), Malbec (opens in a new tab), Merlot, Petit Verdot (opens in a new tab), St. Macaire, Gros Verdot (opens in a new tab), and Carmenère (opens in a new tab). A white blends at least 2 of Sauvignon Blanc (opens in a new tab), Sémillon (opens in a new tab), and Muscadelle (opens in a new tab) du Bordelais, and no single grape may exceed 90%.

Two of those red grapes, St. Macaire and Gros Verdot, are not in the Bordeaux rulebook, so a Meritage can contain grapes that a Bordeaux cannot. The grapes travel. The name stays in the Gironde.