Premières Côtes de Bordeaux

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• The appellation area extends across a territory of some sixty kilometres, encompassing plain, hillfoot, slope, and plateau across 39 communes of the Gironde.
• The relief is strongly pronounced, with high points reaching elevations of up to 120 metres.
• Numerous streams, tributaries of the Garonne, have carved their beds into a limestone bedrock, providing excellent drainage across the entire territory.
• The Tertiary formations comprise an Oligocene Astéries limestone bedrock overlain by decalcification clays of varying sand and gravel content, well suited to vine cultivation.
• On south- and south-west-facing slopes the soils are clayey-brown or clay-limestone, while north- and east-facing slopes are often covered by aeolian silts giving rise to leached soils.
• The Quaternary formations include silts and sandy clays, frequently exceeding one metre in depth, which locally overlie an ancient terrace of clayey gravels, while the plain presents lightly clayey sands, gravels, and pebbles typical of the lower terrace.

• In the southern part of the region, a microclimate favourable to the development of Botrytis cinerea has allowed the establishment of a vineyard planted with both white and red varieties.
• Trade with the Netherlands encouraged the production of white wines and, around 1750, promoted the introduction of ageing in barrique and then in bottle, facilitated by the sulphur wick known as the 'Dutch match' (allumette hollandaise).

• Low yields favouring good ripening, combined with over-ripening brought about by the development of Botrytis cinerea in the form of noble rot, yield musts with a high concentration of sugars.
• These still white wines, with a golden-yellow colour, frequently develop floral and fresh-fruit notes when young, evolving towards vanilla and candied-fruit notes with age.

• The exclusion of poorly drained and hydromorphic soils, as well as valley bottoms, is aimed at managing vine vigour so as to obtain concentrated grapes that give rise to the sweetness, roundness, and aromatic expression of the wines.

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 29 décembre 2025, JORF 7 janvier 2026
• Official INAO text (show_texte)
• INAO product entry
• Official trade body site — CIVB