Grand Cru Tasting in a Medoc Chateau Cellar

The Medoc is a flat, gravelly peninsula north of Bordeaux where the world's most systematically studied and traded wines are produced. The 1855 Classification of Bordeaux wines — commissioned by Napoleon III for the Paris Exposition — ranked 61 chateaux into five growth levels (premieres to cinquiemes crus), and the ranking has barely changed since. Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Margaux, Latour, Haut-Brion, and Petrus occupy a tier of quality and price that makes them objects of global investment. The Second through Fifth Growths, however, are still extraordinary wines accessible to mortals.

Most Medoc chateaux offer cellar visits and tastings by appointment. A visit to Chateau Beychevelle (4th Growth, Saint-Julien), Chateau Pichon Baron (2nd Growth, Pauillac), or Chateau Palmer (3rd Growth, Margaux) provides an education in what Bordeaux does that nowhere else quite replicates: the combination of Cabernet Sauvignon's structure with Merlot's softness, aged in new French oak in stone-and-brick chais (chai cellars) until the tannins resolve into silk. The scale of operation — thousands of barrels in cathedral-dim cellars — is legitimately impressive.

Bordeaux the city has been transformed from its 18th-century port-trading reputation into one of France's most liveable urban spaces. The Place de la Bourse reflected in the Miroir d'Eau water mirror; the Cite du Vin museum (controversial but informative); the canalside quays; and the Sunday morning market at Quai des Chartrons — these are reasons to extend a Medoc trip into the city itself. Drink a glass of Entre-Deux-Mers with fresh oysters from Arcachon at a waterfront bar, and consider the unfairness of French geography.