The Bordeaux wine region

The landscape of the Médoc, a patch of land between the Atlantic coast forests and the Gironde, is monotonous: gravel plains, the brown water of the estuary, and gravelly soil. The D2 wine road, heading off the N15 from Bordeaux, passes through Margaux, St-Julien, Pauillac and St-Estèphe, where many of the famous châteaux reside.

According to legend, the great Frankish hero Roland was buried in Blaye, which was a port of the Gaul Santones in pre-Roman times. The town played a crucial role in the wars against the English, and the French Wars of Religion. The citadelle was built by the great military engineer Vauban, but has never seen action.

Blaye has a long history of viniculture, as the area was originally planted by the Romans, and is also known for a messy-looking sweet confectionery, praslines, made here since the seventeenth century. Another speciality is caviar; legend has it that it was introduced to residents by noble Russians who fled to France during the Revolution.

The green slopes north of the Garonne were planted long before the Médoc. Wine here is powerful, richly coloured, fruity, and cheaper than on the opposite riverbank. The Côtes de Bourg and Côtes de Blaye are quintessential pleasant, inexpensive reds. Visit the Maison du Vin des Premières Côtes de Blaye on cours Vauban to stock up. You can get a good bottle for around €5.

St-Émilion, 35km east of Bordeaux, and a short train trip, is an essential visit. The old grey houses of this fortified medieval town straggle down the steep south-hanging slope of a low hill, with the green froth of the summer’s vines crawling over its walls. Many of the growers still keep up the old tradition of planting roses at the ends of the rows, which in pre-pesticide days served as an early-warning system against infection, the idea being that the commonest bug, oidium, went for the roses first, giving three days’ notice of its intentions.

The best way to see St Émilion is on a guided tour. Tours begin at the grotte de l’Ermitage, where it’s said that St Émilion lived as a hermite in the eighth century, sleeping on a stone ledge. The tour continues in the half-ruined Trinity Chapel, which was converted into a cooperage (barrel-makers’) during the Revolution. Striking frescoes are still visible. Across the yard is a passage beneath the belfry leading to the catacombs, where three chambers dug out of the soft limestone were used as an ossuary between the eighth and eleventh centuries.

Below is the church itself. Simple and huge, the entire structure – barrel vaulting, great square piers and all – was hacked out of the rock. The interior was once painted, but only faint traces survived the Revolution, when it was used as a gunpowder factory. Every June the wine council – La Jurade – assembles here in red robes to judge last year’s wine and decide whether each viticulteur’s produce deserves the appellation contrôlée rating.

Entre-Deux-Mers (“between two seas”) lies between the tidal waters of the Dordogne and Garonne. It’s the most attractive area in the wine region, with gentle hills and medieval villages. Its wines, including the Premières Côtes de Bordeaux, are mainly dry whites, produced by over forty caves cooperatives. They’re considered good, but not up to the level of Médocs or dry Graves produced to the south.

Around 25km east of Bordeaux is the ruined eleventh-century abbey La Sauve Majeure, an important stop for pilgrims en route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Thick woods once surrounded the abbey – in fact its name is from the Latin silva major (large forest). All that remains today are the Romanesque apse and apsidal chapels, and outstanding sculpted capitals in the chancel. The best illustrate stories from the Old and New Testaments; a pensive Daniel in the lions’ den is particularly winning. There’s a small museum at the entrance, with some keystones from the fallen roofs.

Sauternes is a slumbering village surrounded by vines and dominated by the Maison du Sauternes (wmaisondusauternes.com) at one end of the village, and a pretty church at the other. The maison looks like a treasure-trove; the golden bottles with white labels are beautiful. A non-profit organization, the maison offers tastings, expert advice and good prices.

The Sauternes region, which extends southeast from Bordeaux for 40km along the left bank of the Garonne, is an ancient winemaking area, first planted during the Roman occupation. The distinctive golden wine of the area is sweet, round, full-bodied and spicy, with a long aftertaste. It’s not necessarily a dessert wine, either; try it with Roquefort cheese. Gravelly terraces with a limestone subsoil help create the delicious taste, but mostly it’s due to a peculiar microclimate of morning autumn mists and afternoons of sun and heat which causes Botrytis cinerea fungus, or “noble rot”, to flourish on the grapes, letting the sugar concentrate and introducing some intense flavours. When the grapes are picked they’re not a pretty sight: carefully selected by hand, only the most shrivelled, rotting bunches are taken. The wines of Sauternes are some of the most sought-after in the world, with bottles of Château d’Yquem, in particular, fetching thousands of euros. Sadly that particular château does not offer tastings, but you can wander around the buildings and grounds, two minutes’ drive north of Sauternes.