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Bordeaux

France: map with a pin on BordeauxBordeaux and its surroundings: map with a pin
Bordeaux · FranceMap: Maison Apéro, based on Natural Earth (public domain)

Château Haut Bernicot 2022 is listed on this site under the Bordeaux appellation, which makes it a good place to ask what the name Bordeaux on a label tells you, and what it leaves open.

The background that matters

The ground in the Bordeaux appellation is very varied: gravel terraces along the Garonne and Dordogne, clay-dominated riverside soils called palus, wind-blown silts called boulbènes, and Eocene and Oligocene marls, molasses and limestones. The Atlantic, the Gironde estuary and the Garonne and Dordogne valleys play an important temperature-regulating role, and average rainfall is 700–800 mm a year, spread across the seasons.

Read it alongside this wine

This site lists the wine with Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. The appellation name alone does not tell you which of those soils the vines grow on, so this page draws no conclusion about the wine's style.

Try it with the review

Read the review and sort its statements into what was observed in the glass and what is said about place or vintage, then check which of the latter name a source. Compare with the Margaux and Saint-Estèphe pages, two appellations in the Médoc, and ask what each name tells you about place.

These are learning prompts, not guaranteed tasting results. Separate the published facts from your own observations.

Château Haut Bernicot Bordeaux 2022

Sources

Soil and climate diagrams

Bordeaux: from the Garonne gravels over the Entre-deux-Mers to the Dordogne: Dordogne, Boulbènes, Garonne, Entre-deux-Mers, Palus, Gravel terraces, Slopes facing the Dordogne, Starfish limestone, Eocene and Oligocene marls, molasses and limestones

Schematic block diagram, not to scale: the top shows the relief and the front face a cross-section, coloured by soil and rock type.

  • The Entre-deux-Mers is a broad clay-limestone plateau bounded by the left bank of the Dordogne to the north and the right bank of the Garonne to the south.
  • Starfish limestone is the main formation beneath the region and forms the top of the plateaus; erosion of the slopes, especially those facing the Dordogne, exposes the molasse beneath it, and wind-blown silts, the boulbènes, often cover the plateau.
  • Across the Bordeaux appellation the ground ranges from gravel terraces along the Garonne and Dordogne and clay-rich palus to Eocene and Oligocene marls, molasses and limestones; the Atlantic, the Gironde estuary and the river valleys play an important part in regulating temperature.

Sources

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