In today’s video, Bob Paulinski, Master of Wine will discuss the dry white wines of Bordeaux. The videi will cover the various quality levels, the importance of vintage, the grape varieties and what to expect in your wine glass. A tasting of four wines will be included.

This video was created at my home away from home in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This is an excellent French wine market, particularly for Bordeaux. In many cases, over half of the wine offered in shops will are from Bordeaux. It’s a region with thousands of wine producers, making over 600M bottles per wine. While red wine plays a lead focus, about 60M bottles of dry white are produced each year. While you may not find the exact wines featured in this video, it’ll provide guidance of what to expect with the various styles while you’re shopping for wine.

A bit about the region, it’s a vast expanse of vineyards, the second largest in France, located around the city of Bordeaux in the western part of the country, near the Atlantic Ocean. About 85% of the region is dedicated to red wine. About 10% is dry white wine, the small remaining percentage being sweet wines, rose’ and sparkling. Prior to the devastating frost of 1956 the region was heavily influenced by white wine, mostly sweeter styles, along with some fruit dedicated to distilled spirits.
In terms of making sense of the labels, generally speaking, the more specific the place of origin, the better chance of coming across something truly special. At a base level, Bordeaux AOC or Entre deux Mers which are very common examples often solid, decent wines coming from a very broad place of origin, moving up Graves, provides a more specific origin and with a better sense of place, then transitioning to Pessac Leognan, is a more defined place of origin with a long-established presence for dry white wine, (established in 1987). Now comes a twist, throughout the region, many prominent red producers will make small amounts of dry whites, sometimes restricted in terms of a place of origin designation on the label.

Vintage is a critical consideration with a maritime region like Bordeaux, it’ll directly impact the quality and styles of the wines. At the time this video was being made, the early word on the 2023’s is very good, a bit less so with the 2022’s. I’m a fan of the 2021’s, it was much better for the whites versus the red of Bordeaux. Increasingly, elevated alcohol levels can be a factor, especially with increasingly warm vintages.

Grape varieties, SB and Semillon are the two primary grape varieties. Muscadelle is sometimes used to a small percentage to heighten the aroma. Also, look for Sauvignon Gris is become a more prominent variety in the coming years. Ugni Blanc, Colombard and Merlot Blanc in tiny amounts. This pic shows SB near harvest time. The seeds are not quite brown, one indicator of ripeness.

First up is the 2021 Chateau de Beauregard Ducourt, an Entre deux Mers from a vast vineyard area, SE of the city of Bordeaux. The wine sells for about $15. This is no frills winemaking, machine harvested fruit. Most Entre deux Mers is made in SS or concrete vats, its all about the primary fruit character, direct, simple style made for within about five years of the vintage. SB is typically the primary grape variety used, with some Semillon, occasionally a bit of Muscadelle. In Malayasia and many other countries, a duty paid stamp will be noted on the bottle.

The 2020 Ch Le Bonnat from Graves, it sells for about $20. The Graves AOC gets its name from the gravel-based soils that are commonly found within the region.

2017 Chateau Baret Pessac Leognan, an appellation that came into existence in 1980s. Think of it as the prime cut region from within Graves. Some wines are more Sauvignon Blanc based, others more Semillon. This one is 90% SB, 10% Semillon. Oak aged, some new oak, with lees stirring.

2020 Ch Fourcas Dupre Blanc, it sells for about $30. This estate has a long history of great value Red Bordeaux. White wine makes up a small portion of the total wine production.

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