Saint-Emilion

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Overview

Pomerol and Saint-Emilion are the two core communes in what is called the “Right Bank” – on the eastern side of the Gironde estuary but also on the “right” of the Dordogne River. They are the core of the large tracks of land that are satellite appellations as well as Bordeaux AOC.

Saint-Emilion is one of Bordeaux’ largest appellations and is producing more wine on its own than all the Haut-Medoc communes together. Saint-Emilion is located around. . . Read More >

Overview

Saint-Emilion is one of Bordeaux’ largest appellations and is producing more wine on its own than all the Haut-Medoc communes together. Saint-Emilion is located around 6km north-east of the city of Libourne, on the Right Bank, and covers an area which is around 10x5km and planted with over 6,000 vineyards.

Saint-Emilion started producing wine earlier than the Left Bank, but because of Saint-Emilion’s location further inland, thus without direct access to a port (the Left Bank has easy access to the port at Bordeaux City) that meant that transport and thus export was difficult and thus it took much longer for the region’s wines to gain fame and commercial success.

Key Grape Varieties

Merlot is the principal grape variety here, with Cabernet Franc the main accessory variety, and almost no Cabernet Sauvignon is planted apart from a few specific chateaux. Merlot loves the cool clay soils here and Cabernet Franc performs incredibly well on the limestone soils.

Saint-Emilion is large and varied with wines showing anything from ultra-ripe fruit countered by loads of oak while others can be refined, fragrant and more delicate. Compared to its neighbour, Pomerol, the best wines of Saint-Emilion have a much greater, even a slight dominance of, Cabernet Franc. But there are wines of outstanding quality and distinct character among the very best that Bordeaux can offer.

Classification

Saint-Emilion’s wines were classified in 1955. The classification divides the wines into a four-level pyramid in which ‘Premier Grand Cru Classe A’ is the top, underneath it we find ‘Premier Grand Cru Classe B’ and then ‘Grand Cru Classe’ and ‘Grand Cru’ at the bottom.

The classification is updated every decade but has over the years been victim of much political debacle (due to for example chateaux not wanting to accept a demotion) – this is perhaps the reason why three of the ‘A’ estates (Cheval Blanc and Ausone in 2020, Angelus in 2021) have decided to no longer associate themselves with the classification.