The grape varieties of Bordeaux
On the cellar floor the varieties stand apart, each in its own vessel, and after a few minutes in the glass the difference between them is clearer than any description. Six grape varieties are permitted for the red wines of the Bordelais: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Côt — usually called Malbec outside France —, Petit Verdot and Carménère. For the dry white wines, four form the core: Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris and Muscadelle. Each ripens at a different time, calls for a different soil and brings something the others lack.
Six red varieties, six different tasks
Merlot ripens early and fills out the middle of the wine; it succeeds most reliably on cool, water-retaining clay soils, which is why on the right bank of the Garonne it leads most blends. Cabernet Sauvignon ripens late and needs soils that warm up quickly and hold the heat through the night; in return it provides framework, length and the kind of tannin that allows a wine two decades. Cabernet Franc lies in between, brings fragrance, freshness and a finer grain to the tannin, and in cool years rescues the nose of a wine that would otherwise lack fruit. Petit Verdot and Carménère ripen even later than Cabernet Sauvignon and in cool years do not ripen fully at all, which is why some appellations permit them only within tight limits.
Côt gives colour and dark, spicy fruit. That it seldom sets the tone today is a relatively recent shift: at the end of the 18th century it was one of the leading varieties of the area alongside the two Cabernets and Petit Verdot, while Merlot only spread from around 1830 and became the most widely planted variety of the Bordelais only with the spread of grafting, which reduced its tendency to coulure.
Why a variety's rank depends on the appellation
The six varieties are the same throughout the Bordelais, their standing is not. The specification of the Bordeaux Supérieur appellation lists all six as main varieties of equal rank. Under the umbrella of the Côtes de Bordeaux, to which our red wines belong, only Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Côt are main varieties, while Carménère and Petit Verdot are listed as secondary varieties and limited both in area and in the blend. The same plant can therefore play a different role a few kilometres further on, without anything about it having changed.
What the white varieties contribute
In dry white wine, two varieties share the main work: Sémillon gives volume, texture and ageing potential, Sauvignon Blanc fragrance, citrus notes and acidity. Sauvignon Gris is close to it but is considered rounder and less loud. Muscadelle contributes floral notes in small proportions and rarely stands alone. Colombard, Ugni Blanc and Merlot Blanc are permitted as secondary varieties up to thirty per cent and almost always serve the same purpose: acidity in warm years.
What climate change is currently changing about this list
Since 2021 the Bordelais has additionally permitted a number of adaptation varieties — for red Arinarnoa, Castets, Marselan, Touriga Nacional and Vidoc, for white Floréal, Liliorila, Sauvignac and Souvignier Gris. The conditions are tight: at most five per cent of an estate's vineyard area, at most ten per cent in any individual bottled wine, and only under an agreement with the INAO. It is a cautious attempt to meet the shifted course of ripening with later-ripening or more drought-resistant plants, without giving up the character of the region. In 2025 we planted a small plot with Castets, an old variety that had almost disappeared from Bordeaux. It is not yet bearing fruit; what it can do we will know in a few years at the earliest.
The decision is therefore rarely between the varieties and almost always between the sites. A Cabernet Sauvignon on heavy, cool clay stays green, a Merlot on dry gravel loses its freshness in hot years, and neither can be remedied later in the cellar. What stands in a plot was usually planted decades ago — our oldest vines date from 1953 —, and the work lies in doing justice to that choice, vintage after vintage, until the wines in the end no longer show the varieties individually.