So much has been written in recent years about growing consumer demand for lighter, lower alcohol wines, and at the same time, according to the ‘Focus’ report released by the OIV (International Organisation of Vine and Wine) in early December last year, white and rosé now account for more than half of global wine consumption. Such a backdrop perhaps gives context to a decision by Bordeaux’s Médoc region, so long celebrated for its world-class reds, to be jumping on the bandwagon with an application to introduce regulations for white wines as part of the existing wider Médoc appellation.
Opinions vary, it must be said, over a ‘Médoc Blanc’ designation, which is currently still under consideration by the French national appellation authority INAO. The Médoc has long been known for its Cabernet-driven reds from warm gravel soils; however, it also has pockets of clay and limestone – as well as cooler microclimates in its northern reaches nearer the Atlantic – that are amenable for crafting dry white wines.
Tasting dry whites from the Médoc this past spring, merchants and winemakers based in Strasbourg, Alsace professed elation over the ‘surprising freshness’ of the wines. ‘Coming from Bordeaux, I was expecting oaky wines,’ said Sylvain Girard, who hosted the tasting at his wine boutique Cave à Terroirs in the city (pictured, p52).
The Médoc, Haut-Médoc and Listrac-Médoc ODG wine producers’ council supports the application (see box, p51), and according to its director Hélène Larrieu, such a designation would ‘highlight the terroirs and the knowhow of Médoc vintners, guaranteeing the Médoc location for wines whose characteristics are distinguished from [the rest of] Bordeaux by their notes of exotic fruits with a certain minerality and salinity, given the proximity of the Gironde estuary and the Atlantic ocean’.
WHY MEDOC BLANC?
The best-reputed Bordeauxwine columnist Ben Giliberti. ‘Not a single white wine was included in the 1855 classification of the Médoc, and over the centuries, the word claret has become synonymous with the Médoc: well balanced, well structured, and red,’ he tells ‘For as long as Graves continues to exist, white Médocs are the answer to a question that nobody asked.’
