Haut-Médoc

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• The geographical area stretches from Le Taillan-Médoc in the south to Saint-Seurin-de-Cadourne in the north over nearly 50 kilometres, and barely more than ten kilometres from east to west.
• The appellation covers 28 communes in the Gironde département, situated upstream of the Gironde estuary.
• The riverfront of the Haut-Médoc is distinguished from the more northerly communes of the Médoc by a relative smoothing of seasonal temperature fluctuations and moderate rainfall, owing to the thermally regulating effect of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gironde.
• The oceanic climate — with some years bringing wet autumn depressions or warm, sunny late seasons — is the source of a marked vintage effect.
• Soils are divided between beds of sandy and clayey gravels deposited by the Garonne and the Dordogne during the Quaternary, and Tertiary clay-limestone soils subject to anticlinal uplift.
• The relief of the viticultural landscapes is barely pronounced, with altitudes ranging from 3 to 50 metres, bounded to the west by forest and to the east by the Garonne or the Gironde estuary.

• As early as the sixteenth century, Bordeaux and local nobility established maines and then bourdieux within their estates — the forerunners of the château model characteristic of the Haut-Médoc.
• The land consolidations of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries made it possible to plant in a quincunx pattern using the rège method — trellised rows spaced less than one metre apart in the Médoc tradition, with pine-lath trellising.
• Soils are cultivated and drained, with de-hilling of the vine bases in spring and re-hilling in autumn (cavaillonner) to encourage rooting and protect against frost.
• The controlled designation of origin 'Haut-Médoc' was recognised by decree on 14 November 1936, and the frosts of February 1956 confirmed the abandonment of certain previously cultivated sectors.

• The wines are deeply coloured and tannic, drawn from blends in which Cabernet Sauvignon is often the dominant variety, with Merlot less prominent than in the Médoc appellation.
• Cabernet Sauvignon contributes spicy notes that mingle with vanilla characters during barrel ageing, which is more widespread here than in the Médoc appellation, while Merlot brings roundness, suppleness, and red-fruit aromas.
• Long macerations, made possible by very ripe, healthy fruit from controlled yields, produce concentrated wines that require indispensable ageing to soften them, and they show excellent potential for cellaring.

Facts drawn from the specification's terroir-link section by automatic interpretation — see the source.

All appellations in France

Sources

• Product specification (BO Agri, PDF) — approved 31 juillet 2025, JORF 5 août 2025
• Official INAO text (show_texte)
• INAO product entry
• Official trade body site — Conseil des Vins du Médoc