Bordeaux Wine Region in France: World's Most Famous Fine Wine Region

Bordeaux is arguably the greatest wine region in the world.  Great cellars around the world are filled with wines from the different chateaus of the region.  America’s first wine connoisseur, Thomas Jefferson, not only drank wines from here, but made it a point to visit the region and see for himself what made these wines so great.

Bordeaux lies in the southwest corner of France where it follows the Gironde River inland from the Atlantic Ocean.  The region takes its name from the largest city in the area (also named Bordeaux) which is a thriving port metropolis on the Gironde.  It is a very large wine region with around 250,000 acres under vine.  Although there are perhaps one hundred producers who have achieved worldwide fame, there are approximately 20,000 producers making wine in Bordeaux.  Approximately 850 million bottles are produced each year. 

Wine has been grown in Bordeaux for a couple of thousand years predating even the Romans arrival in 56 BC.  Unlike most areas of France, where the Church developed and controlled the wine, the merchant class traditionally was at the center of the Bordeaux wine trade.  Perhaps this is due to its location near a port which made for easier commerce.  The area was under English rule for a long time.  Wineries would sell their barrels to merchants in England.  Boats filled with barrels of Claret, the English word for the red wine produced here, made their way from the port of Bordeaux to England on a regular basis.  In the 1400’s half of all production was sold to England.