The Médoc peninsula in Bordeaux is known for its many prestigious chateaux. And for its red wines. The eight Médoc appellations have always been red-only. (Small quantities of white has been made but had to be labelled as generic “bordeaux”.) But now this is changing.
Three of the appellations will be allowed to produce white wines from the 2025 vintage. Not surprisingly, it is not the most prestigious appellations (Pauillac, Margaux, etc) that are concerned.
The chosen ones are these appellations:
- Médoc,
- Haut-Médoc and
- Listrac
Many producers are happy with this decision; white wines are sought after today. And we are happy too because we feel that Bordeaux makes too little white wine.
Perhaps white wines can also help unknown chateaux to sell their red wines as well.
The grapes are the usual white ones in Bordeaux:
- sauvignon blanc,
- sauvignon gris,
- sémillon and
- muscadelle
These will be the main grapes. They can add 15% chardonnay if they want. The more southern grapes alvarinho, liliorila and viognier and the resistant hybrids floréal, sauvignac and souvignier gris can also be planted in smaller quantities.
Read more: vitisphere
Travel: Come on a wine tour to Bordeaux with BKWine. (PS: We’ve written a prize-winning book on Bordeaux.)
