HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Médoc (; oc, label= Gascon, Medòc ) is a region of France, well known as a wine growing region, located in the ''
département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety- ...
'' of Gironde, on the left bank of the
Gironde estuary The Gironde estuary ( , US usually ; french: estuaire de la Gironde, ; oc, estuari de aGironda, ) is a navigable estuary (though often referred to as a river) in southwest France and is formed from the meeting of the rivers Dordogne and Ga ...
, north of
Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture ...
. Its name comes from ''( Pagus) Medullicus'', or "country of the ''
Medulli The Medulli (Gaulish: ''Medulloi'') were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the upper valley of Maurienne, around present-day Modane (Savoie), during the Iron Age and Roman period. Name They are mentioned as ''Medullorum'' by Vitruvius (late 1st c. BC ...
''", the local
Celt The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...
ic tribe. The region owes its economic success mainly to the production of red wine; it is home to around 1,500 vineyards. The area also has pine forests and long sandy beaches. The Médoc's geography is not ideal for wine growing, with its proximity to the
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...
resulting in a comparatively mild climate and high rainfall making grape rot a constant problem. It is generally believed that the nature of the region's wine derives from the soil; although the terrain is flat, excellent drainage is a necessity and the increased amount of gravel in the soil allows heat to be retained, encouraging ripening, and extensive root systems.


Viticulture

With the exception of
Château Haut-Brion Château Haut-Brion () is a French wine, rated a ''Premier Grand Cru Classé'' ( First Great Growth), produced in Pessac just outside the city of Bordeaux. It differs from the other wines on the list in its geographic location in the north of ...
from Graves, all of the red wines in the 1855 Classification are from the Médoc. Many of the Médoc wines that are not in this classification were classified using the
Cru Bourgeois The Cru Bourgeois classification lists some of the châteaux from the Médoc that were not included in the 1855 Classification of ''Crus Classés'', or Classed Growths. Notionally, ''Cru Bourgeois'' is a level below ''Cru Classé'', but still of ...
system until 2007. Following legal challenges this category was abolished, and reintroduced in 2010 as an annual "mark of quality" depending on independent annual assessment.


See also

*
Bordeaux wine regions The wine regions of Bordeaux are a large number of wine growing areas, differing widely in size and sometimes overlapping, which lie within the overarching wine region of Bordeaux, centred on the city of Bordeaux and covering the whole area of the ...


External links


Médoc

The Wine Doctor

Visit Médoc

About Médoc

French-English guide book to enotourism in Médoc
{{DEFAULTSORT:Medoc Geography of Gironde Nouvelle-Aquitaine region articles needing translation from French Wikipedia