The Left Bank: A Tradition Unlike Any Other

In my previous post I briefly explained the two main wine growing regions in Bordeaux, the right and the left bank. In today’s, I’ll dive into the left bank. I realize this may get a bit long and even *gasp* informative. However I assure you that my hijinks will ensue later this week. Bare with me. Or leave and check this LINK out instead (preferably both).

I think that, going forward, it’s important to remember that the left bank thinks itself vastly superior to the right bank. And, for the most part, the wine community agrees. Since the left bank uses Cabernet Sauvignon to make up the majority of their wine, there’s a bit of a superiority complex (regardless of whether it’s deserved or not). Along with that superiority complex comes outrageous pricing, a little bit of an attitude, and palpable snobbery. In addition to the species of grape they use, the left bank also has an abundance of ‘alluvial gravels’ in the terroir (a fancy french word for soil). Basically the left bank vineyards lie on dried up river bed; and though it’s a bit ugly aesthetically, it’s terrific for producing wine. The reason is that they reflect sunlight onto the bottom of the berries; heating them up, ripening them more, and ripening them faster than they would otherwise.

The left bank is separated into eight major appellations; with three being somewhat less prestigious and the other five being more exclusive. Here’s a map of all of Bordeaux. The most important wine making regions are St. Julien, St. Estephe, Margaux, Pauillac, and Pessac-Leognan. If you see any of those on the label of your wine, it should be some quality juice. The other three, larger regions are Medoc, Haut-Medoc, and Graves.

When discussing and even thinking about Bordeaux, you always have to keep in mind the classification system. The most basic classification is run by a government operated. You have to follow strict guidelines in order to even put ‘Vin de Bordeaux’ on your wine. These include no irrigation, no tampering with soil (such as importing the oh-so-valuable gravels), and even no planting of Chardonnay grapes (as silly as that sounds). As an aside, this creates an interesting dichotomy in the French psyche. They think and assume their wine is better than any new world wines, but equally envy and detest that the new world can do whatever they want to the soil and grapes.

The left and right banks have different classification systems. More specifically all the premier (no pun intended) wines on the left bank were classified in 1855, and there has been minimal change since then but for the infamous ‘moving up’ from second to first growth of Mouton Rothschild in 1973. That is an amazing story for another time. Read here for a much more in depth description of the classification. But basically the royalty of Bordeaux lines up like this, in no particular order: Cheval Blanc, Ausone, Margaux, Mouton Rothschild, Latour, and Haut Brion, with Petrus as the queen and Lafite Rothschild as king.

Now why would anyone care about the novel I just wrote? Hopefully this basic education can help someone, anyone understand just a little about Bordeaux wine. And hopefully it will inspire them to try the progenitors of those humongous California wines. Without further ado, a small little tasting profile of four ‘reasonably’ priced left bank wines. All under $100, one under $30, one under $50, one under $75 and one clocking in at $89.67. So hopefully a wide spectrum of things to try, regardless of your price range. We’ll start with the cheapest and move our way up.

2006 Reserve Speciale, Baron de Rothschild, Paulliac-$29.46 retail

Share On