Entre-deux-Mers, and where its red wines go

Two rivers that rise and fall like a sea

Entre-deux-Mers (opens in a new tab) means between 2 seas. The seas are the Garonne and the Dordogne, both tidal past Langon and Libourne, and on the Dordogne the tide comes up as a wave, the mascaret. To the people who named the place, water that rose and fell 2 times a day was the sea. The country between the rivers, east of the city of Bordeaux, is rolling land of clay and of clay mixed with limestone, with gravel in places, above all on the slopes.

The appellation crosses 133 communes of the Gironde, a wider area than any Bordeaux appellation except the regional ones. It covers far less vineyard than it crosses: 1,783 hectares and 280 growers, half of them independent and half in the cooperatives. The reason is the color of the vines. About 85% of the region is planted to red, and until 2023 only the white could carry the name.

Eighty-six years of white

The Entre-deux-Mers appellation was recognized by the decree of July 31, 1937, for dry white wine, and for 86 years that is what the name meant. The wine was a white of Sémillon (opens in a new tab), Sauvignon, Sauvignon Gris (opens in a new tab), and Muscadelle (opens in a new tab), with Colombard (opens in a new tab) and Ugni Blanc (opens in a new tab) as accessory varieties. The red grown on the same slopes went out under the regional names, Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur.

This is how the Entre-deux-Mers came to matter so much to red Bordeaux without being known for it. Bordeaux Supérieur, 12,191 hectares and almost entirely red, can be made in any of the 494 communes of the Bordeaux appellation. Its main production area is the Entre-deux-Mers, on clay and limestone mixed with sand.

Red, since 2023

In May 2023 the INAO, the French body that governs appellations, extended the name to red on about 5,500 hectares, 3 times the vineyard the white had covered. The first red vintage was 2023. The cahier des charges in force, the appellation’s official rulebook, approved by the ministerial order of September 19, 2025, opens with the change: the name is reserved for still red wines and dry white wines.

	Red	Dry white
Grapes	Cabernet Sauvignon (opens in a new tab), Cabernet Franc (opens in a new tab), Malbec (opens in a new tab), Merlot (opens in a new tab), Petit Verdot (opens in a new tab); Carmenère (opens in a new tab) accessory	Sémillon, Sauvignon, Sauvignon Gris, Muscadelle; Colombard and Ugni Blanc accessory
Blend	At least 2 principal varieties, none above 80%	A blend of several varieties
Yield	55 hectoliters a hectare, ceiling 65	65 hectoliters a hectare, ceiling 75
Natural alcohol	12% at least	10.5% at least
Timing	Sold only from January 1 of the second year after the harvest (about 14 months)	Kept on its lees until November 15 after the harvest

Both colors are planted at no less than 4,500 vines a hectare. The red asks for riper grapes and a longer wait than a Bordeaux Supérieur, whose red is sold from July 1 of the year after the harvest. The first red Entre-deux-Mers reached the trade in 2025.

A choice of names for one red

A grower between the rivers has a choice for a red: Entre-deux-Mers, under its stricter rules, or Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur, which cover the same land. Parts of the region also carry appellations of their own, among them Graves de Vayres (opens in a new tab) in a bend of the Dordogne and Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux (opens in a new tab) on the right bank of the Garonne.

The white keeps the name’s older meaning, and in one corner it keeps the only one: Entre-deux-Mers Haut-Benauge (opens in a new tab), on 8 communes in the hills around Targon, is for dry white alone. On a label, since 2023, the words Entre-deux-Mers say where the wine was grown, and no longer which color it is.