What are the satellites of Saint-Émilion and Pomerol?

Who the satellites are

A satellite is an appellation named after a more famous neighbor. There are 5 on the Right Bank, all red only, each drawn on land of its own: a commune, 2 communes or an old village.

The figures are those of the Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux. For scale, Pomerol itself is 813 hectares, so Lalande-de-Pomerol is some 40% larger than the name it borrows. Saint-Émilion and Saint-Émilion Grand Cru share about 5,400 hectares.

There were once 2 more. Parsac-Saint-Émilion was absorbed into Montagne-Saint-Émilion in the 1970s, and Sables-Saint-Émilion into Saint-Émilion itself, which is why the count is 5. Fronsac (opens in a new tab) and Castillon are neighbors too, but they carry names of their own and are not satellites.

How they got the name

The Saint-Émilion satellites won it in court. In November 1921 the tribunal of Libourne kept the name Saint-Émilion for the communes of Saint-Émilion’s old jurisdiction, and Lussac was left outside. On February 19, 1923, the Cour de Bordeaux, the court of appeal, let the neighboring communes use it on one condition: their own name had to come with it. That is why every one of them reads commune first, Saint-Émilion second. Montagne, Lussac, and Puisseguin were recognized by decree on November 14, 1936, and Saint-Georges the same year.

Lalande-de-Pomerol needed no court, because the name is its own commune’s. The appellation is 2 communes north of Pomerol across the Barbanne stream, Lalande-de-Pomerol and Néac, recognized by decree on December 8, 1936. Its growers’ association dates from 1884, one of the first in the Gironde.

Looser rules than the name they carry

The satellites grow the Bordeaux red grapes: Merlot (opens in a new tab), Cabernet Franc (opens in a new tab), Cabernet Sauvignon (opens in a new tab), and Malbec (opens in a new tab) as principal varieties, with Carmenère (opens in a new tab) and Petit Verdot (opens in a new tab) as accessories, to 10%. That is not quite their neighbors’ list. Pomerol admits no Carmenère, and Saint-Émilion counts it as a principal variety. The larger difference is in how much each cahier des charges, the appellation’s rulebook, asks.

A Lalande-de-Pomerol may give 4 more hectoliters a hectare than a Pomerol, some 530 more bottles, and reach the shelf more than 7 months sooner. A Montagne-Saint-Émilion is held to the yield of a plain Saint-Émilion, not the stricter Grand Cru. Lussac and Puisseguin have written farming rules of their own into their cahiers des charges: no chemical weeding across a whole plot, and organic or environmental certification for every grower.

What the name does not bring

Rank. Pomerol has no classification. The Saint-Émilion classification (opens in a new tab) belongs to Saint-Émilion Grand Cru alone and is written into its rulebook. No estate in Montagne, Lussac, Puisseguin, or Saint-Georges can be a Grand Cru Classé, however good its wine.

The satellites are neighbors of the famous names, on related limestone, clay, and gravel, not junior members of them. The famous name comes second on the label. The one written first, before the hyphen, is where the wine was grown.