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Visit Our Expert Guide’s Favorite Wineries in the Medoc Region

American wine critic Robert Parker was the first to base himself on the US Standardized Grading system to grade wines making the buying process easier for consumers. According to this system, a wine that reaches at least 85 points is considered to be above average or good.What consumers usually don’t know is that this grading system results from a first grade out of 50. To that grade, instead of multiplying it by 2 to obtain  the final grade out of 100 (the logical way to do it!) the system just adds another 50 points to the first grade. By using this system, a wine that obtains 35/50 on their first grade and that should reach 70/100, finally obtains 35+50=85 points. Imagine therefore a wine that obtains 20/50, the same wine will obtain a 70/100 letting consumers believe that in fact this is not such a ‘bad wine’.

So let’s get to the point. Our team of travel designers have decided to bring you the best of Bordeaux wines by taking you to the wineries that have obtained a real 90+ point average. How is this possible? By combining the scores of 3 major wine tasting events/critics that have put quality before reputation or price. Most of the wineries selected you will never have heard of and many do not offer top of the notch tasting rooms. In fact most of these wineries are not used to having visitors or wine tour companies as their main activity is to make wine! However, they do have one thing in  common: create the Best of Bordeaux wines!

After being picked up by your driver/guide, head towards the left bank wine producing areas of the Bordeaux vineyards. These include:

The Medoc wine region that spans the left bank of the Gironde from the mouth of the river to the city of Bordeaux and includes the four famous communes of St-Estephe, Pauillac, St. Julien and Margaux. It is about 60 km north to south, and about 10 km wide, with around 10,600 hectares under vines and a production of about 50 million liters per year. All the wine made here is red and the main grape variety used is the Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Graves region, bordered on the north by the Garonne river and that contains the sub regions of Pessac-Léognan, Sauternes and Barsac. It is known for its intensely gravelly soil.  While Château Haut-Brion was included in the 1855 classification of the Médoc, the Graves appellation itself was classified in 1953 for its red wine producers. White wines were included in the updated 1959 classification. Graves is considered the birthplace of claret. In the Middle Ages, the wines that were first exported to England were produced in this area. Château Pape Clément, founded at the turn of the fourteenth century by the future Pope Clement V, was the first named chateaux in all of Bordeaux. In 1663, Samuel Pepys’ mention of Château Haut-Brion was the first recorded mention of French Claret in London. Your tour will take you to 3 carefully selected wineries located in different appellations and we have selected vintages that have obtained at least 90 points from several renowned wine events/critics. All visits will consist in a short introduction of the history of the wineries followed by a visit of all the technical installations when appropriate. Finally, experience commented wine tasting sessions of the Chateau wines so as to better understand what are the specificities that have allowed the wines to obtain such high rankings. Throughout the day, your driver/guide will deliver live commentaries during your travel time so that the many questions you might have can be answered. All Chateau visits are private.