Ep. 931 Map 1:France, Map 2:Bordeaux, Map 3/4:Right & Left Bank Bordeaux | Jumbo Shrimp Maps

Welcome to the Italian wine podcast. This episode is brought to you by Vinitally International Academy, announcing the twenty fourth of our Italian wine Ambassador courses to be held in London, Austria, and Hong Kong, from the twenty seventh to the twenty ninth of July. Are you up for the challenge of this demanding course? Do you want to be the next Italian wine Ambassador? Learn more and apply now at viniti international dot com. Welcome to jumbo shrimp wine study maps. We have specially created this free content for all our listeners who are studying for wine exams. This has been a journey of development since Stevie Kim discovered Rosie Baker's hand drawn maps on Instagram through two years of work by our in house editorial and graphics team, and now the maps are available to purchase in beta form while they undergo the final briefing and editing by our expert advisory board. It's a three layered project because we know everyone learns differently. We now offer the complete box set of thirty nine maps. This series of podcasts with the maps narrated by our crack team of wine educators. And finally, the study guide book, which will be published later this year. Our map project is in no way a substitute for the material set out by other educational or organizations, but we hope all the wine students out there will find our map project a new, exciting, and useful tool for learning. For more information and to buy the maps, please visit our website at mama jumbo shrimp dot com. Welcome to the jumbo shrimp wine study maps podcast. In this episode, we'll be looking at France. An overview of what to expect when you start studying the key wine regions of France. First off, let's have a look at labeling in France. So France uses the geographic indications of the EU, so the PGI PDA system But of course, like many European countries, it also uses its own labeling terms within the PGI PPO system, and these are what you are more likely to see on the labels. For example, at the PGI level, you will see IGP, so the Indecastion Geographic protege. But you might also see van der Pei. This is particularly common in the southern area of France. Now once we take a step up into these PDio areas. So with much stricter controls on things like grape variety, yield, winemaking, now we begin to see the Appalachian Controlet. So the AC or AOC on the labels. France being a really large country, in addition to the Appalachian Controlet on the labels, you will often find villages named or cruise or the terms premier crew or grand crew. We'll dive into those in a little bit more detail when we get to the individual areas because each of them has a slightly different way of labeling their wines and therefore a slightly different way that these appear. France is a country with lots of different climatic influences Therefore, we have a full range of climate types here. So for recap, closer to the coast where we have this Atlantic Ocean influence. So for example, in the Nantes, in the Loire Valley, in Bordeaux, we have a maritime climate. So these are climates characterized by cool to moderate temperatures and low annual difference between the average summer winter temperatures. So low continentality. Rainfall also tends to be spread evenly across the year This means that you might get rainfall during harvest, for example, which is something you need to consider when you're thinking about your natural and human factors. It's also something you need to consider when connecting the climate with the great varieties you might find there and issues with ripening. As we get into more central France, thinking about areas such as Alsace or Burgundy, into the doe doeing, these are areas that are continental. So they have high content mentality. This is a large difference between the coldest and the warmest months. They also have short summers and a large temperature, this really quick temperature drop in the autumn. These are areas that are at great risk of things like spring frost. Again, something you need to be connecting with the grape varieties that are grown here and the impact that this might have on flowering. Therefore, it's best suited to grape varieties that bud late and ripen early. Something we'll be diving into in a little bit more detail when we talk about Burgundy. As we get closer to the Mediterranean, we have, you might have guessed it, Mediterranean climates. These are also like maritime climates, areas with a low difference between the average temperatures in the growing season, so in the summer and then in the winter. However, the summers tend to be warmer than those in maritime climates, and they have extra warmth and extra sunlight in general. So you might see higher alcohol levels, maybe a little bit lower acidity. And again, something to consider when thinking about what grape varieties might ripen in these areas. We're going to dive into the grape varieties that are specific to each region as we cover the maps for those regions. However, it is worth noting at this point that France is famous for the so called international varieties. So these are varieties that are grown around the world in various styles. For example, we're thinking about chardonnay, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir, even sauvignon blanc now. And one of the reasons that these have been carried around the world is because of the success of the premium wines in France and the styles that have been copied around the world. However, it's not just these international varieties that are grown in France. France has lots of other different varieties that are not to be dismissed, And that are very specifically connected to places. For example, when we think about Bordeaux, we're also gonna be talking about semillon and Muscadel. When we get to Burgundy, it's not just Chardonnay and Pino noir that are grown here, but also Game and Aligote. Noir is the home of things like Shenin Blanc of Cabene Fronc, of Melander Bugoin. Into Bordeaux, not just Murlough, Cabernet sauvignon, you shouldn't forget that there is also cabernet franc and Pativa doe down here, adding specific characters to the blend. And of course, as we get into the Ron, we'll be thinking about things like Sira, grenache, or so vignonje. Into the southwest, we have Cot, which is the French term for Malbec, and Tannat. And then right down in this southern area of France, along the Mediterranean, we have the addition of things like Pigpool and Muvedge. Join me in the next episode as we start taking a closer look at some of the specific regions and the things that you need to be considering when studying them. This episode, we'll be looking at the first of the three maps about Bordeaux. Before we take a really close look at the differences between the left and right bank, Appalachian, of Bordeaux, it's a good idea to get a broad picture of the area. Bordeaux is a region in the southwest of France close to the Atlantic Ocean. It's the largest Appalachian by volume and value, and ninety percent of the wines here are red, most of which are blends. We also find incredibly prestigious long lived sweet wines from the Appalachian of Sotun. There are lots of things going on in Bordeaux, so lots of potential for questions about winemaking, about blending because of things like the weather influence. It's a moderate maritime climate, which is highly variable. You can get lots of different levels of rainfall and humidity both throughout the year and between different years. There are warm ocean currents that extends the growing season into October, but there are occasional spring frost, and misty autumn conditions can lead to noble rot, this positive fungus, that, but try to scenario that is really beneficial for sweet wines. However, because of this moisture, there is the potential for rot. Given all of these variables and also huge vintage variation, there is a lot of focus on blending of varietals here. This is also a little bit dependent on the soils, which we will dive into in more detail in the specific areas, but needless to say these soils help or hinder ripening in certain grape varieties, which means there's a real focus on which grapes can come from which area and the blending of grapes so that you can protect against this vintage variation. Speaking of blending in grape varieties, let's look at those varieties. So really in Bordeaux, there is a lot of focus on the red wines, and therefore, the black grape varieties, merlot, is the most widely planted here, particularly important in the wines of the right bank. Cabernet sauvignon is the second most widely planted and is most associated with the left bank. Although, They are blended in both. We'll get into that in more detail in the next episode. In addition to Merlo and Cabernet sauvignon, we also have Cabernet franc. This is also widely used in the right bank area of Santemilium. Then we have a little bit of petiva dough. This is normally used to add spice to wines and is very difficult to grow because it needs a lot of heat. Now there are also white wines of bordeaux, both dry and sweet. Here, the focus really on sovignon blanc and semillon blends. Sovignon blanc being aromatic and naturally high in acidity, giving perfume and acidic structure to the blends. The other white grape here is semion, which adds body and richness to the blends, and is also very susceptible to noble rot, which is ideal for the production of sweet, but prioritized wines, specifically in sotern and Mombasiak. Speaking of grapes here, Bordeaux is a great example of why we shouldn't consider machine harvesting as a negative thing. This is one of the things we really need to consider is the reasons behind it, not whether or not it is, quote, good or bad. Pordeaux is very flat. Therefore, it's easy and fast and efficient to machine harvest the grapes. Specifically when you don't need the stems for tannic structure. There is also a considerable amount of money in this region. Therefore, technology is easy to come by, so you can optically sort your grapes as they come into the winery. This means that you can machine harvest but still be incredibly selective with your grapes as they come in. Just reinforcing the fact that machine harvest wines can be very premium and lead to great selection of grapes. Wine making techniques here are often connected to Tannic profile and ageability. So we have lots of use of oak to add complexity, spice, and flavor, particularly new oak, to add very intense clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, toast, and smoke, and also used for extended aging of wines just softening and integrating tannin acid and flavor. As if Bordeaux didn't have enough complexity and the things we need to talk about, there are also varying classifications here depending on which area you are looking at. Don't worry. We'll tackle each of those in the next couple of episodes as we think about the right bank and left bank separately and really focus on the blends in those areas. So join me in the next episode as we take a deep dive into the left bank wines of Bordeaux. So wines broadly focused on cabinet, Servign dominated blends. Are you enjoying this podcast? Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel, mama jumbo shrimp for fascinating videos covering Stevie Kim and her travels across Italy and beyond, meeting winemakers, eating local food, and taking in the scenery. Now back to the show. This episode will be looking at the left bank of Bordeaux map. As I mentioned in our Bordeaux overview, Bordeaux is actually a very large area, but we can make it easy to study by separating it into its smaller areas and really focusing on this split between right and left bank, which is why today we're going to be focusing on the left bank, which are commonly the cabernet sauvignon dominated wines. Now before we get into the specific wine making and areas and soil types, and everything that you need to know. Let's take a quick look back at the Bordeaux Apelastions. First up, we have this regional appelastion of Bordeaux. This covers wines that are made with grapes from all over the region. But broadly speaking, what this means is wines made from Merlo. This is because Merlo grows very easily and therefore it's easier to put these grapes into Bordeaux Apelastion wines. Now within this regional appelastion, there is a step up of Bordeaux superior. This is stricter appelastion rules and particularly higher levels of alcohol, so higher sugar potential in the grapes. Normally meaning that the grapes for these wines, although still merlot dominated tend to come from slightly better sites. More warmth, more ripening potential, hence, more alcohol. From here, we then start looking at the commune wines. So these are wines from specific areas, and a lot of focus in these communes are actually on specific shadows thanks to the eighteen fifty five classification. Now here, we're talking specifically Left Bank and even more specifically thinking about the Medock area. That's gonna be our focus for a lot of this podcast. So in eighteen fifty five, there was a classification made of the best wines according to their market value. And these classified certain growths a k a shadows and put them into an order from best to least according to how much money they could command on the market. And this gives us the classification for this Medock area of the left bank of Bordeaux. What it's really important to understand about this MEDdoc classification is that it is fixed. It never changes. It has been this way since eighteen fifty five. It is staying this way. So we have a series of shadows that command very high prices still because of this original classification. Now, obviously, the shadows vary in size, and you can see some variation in quality here. This is not a quality classification. It is just based on this original market value. Because of this and this understanding and because this classification is fixed, new shadows can't take advantage of it. As a result, we have an additional classification here of crewe bourgeois. This was added later to give these newer shadows, those who weren't able to capitalize on the original classification, the opportunity to have a designation on their label that indicates that they too have very high quality wines. It's worth noting that within this eighteen fifty five classification, there are also the sweet wines of so turn, which we'll cover in a moment. But let's focus now on these prestigious red wines of the medoc and hot medoc. So it's a moderate maritime climate here with lots of humidity, lots of water, and lots of rot. This also leads to lots of vintage variation because it can change throughout the year. Now the focus in the med doc is these red wines. Frost isn't really a problem here, and so you do get ripening late into the season right into October. Which is really important because the focus in the medoc and hot medoc is carbonate sovignon that needs warmth to ripen and also needs specific conditions to continue ripening. However, one of the key issues here again related to water actually is that spring rains can disrupt flowering and fruit set, and summer storms often damage or dilute fruit. So canopy management is really important in this area for air circulation regulation. Now one of the reasons that the left bank of Bordeaux for the red wines is a little bit more focused on cabernet, sovignon is because of the soils here. We see a lot of gravel and stone allowing free drainage, meaning the roots are not sitting in water. Also gravel soils warm up and stay warm throughout the season, like, say, into this late ripening period, allowing for long ripening for cabernet sauvignon. Key communes that you need to be aware of in this area are Santa Steph, Puyac, San Julien, and Margot, all of which have this high percentage of cabernet sauvignon in the blend, lots of sharp, black currant fruit, and lots of oak aging. We're right at the limits of cabernet sauvignon ripening here, so the tannins can be really aggressive, very high, and high sharp acidity. So oak is used a lot and you get lots of cedar, spice, clove, and nutmeg. And one of the reasons it's used is to soften this tannin and acidity. You often see new oak to add very intense concentrated flavors. These are wines designed to have complexity and intensity so that they can withstand long aging periods. Hedding a little bit south from this Medock and hot Medock area, you come into grave. Now, again, high levels of gravel soils here, easy to remember, graph, gravel, and here we have both red and white wines. And although the white wines that might be made in the medoc would just be labeled as Bordo appylation, in grave, you actually have appylations for white wines, one of the most famous being Pessa at Leon Yang, this commune area that produces dry, sovignon blanc, semillon blends, often with oak use, with the semillon giving body and richness and weight being able to withstand oak as it is not aromatic, sovignon blanc giving flowers, aromatics, and acidity. To help with potential aging here. There are, however, cabernet sauvignon based blends in Peasant, Leon as well. This area, obviously, with this gravel soil very suited to cabernet sauvignon, but here they tend to be a little bit lighter bodied and more fragrant, more floral than the hawk medock reds. In the bigger area of grav, we have a slightly higher merlot percentage in the blend often, giving slightly less concentrated and complex wines with more of this soft fruity character rounding out the tannins and acidity, much more focused on black plums and black berries than black currant, and quite often fresh, unoaked sauvignon blanc wines. Little bit further south into this grave area as you're heading along the river. We come to barsac, which is an area dominated by semillon. It lies within the Appalachian of Sotern. And so often the grapes here in the best years are put into the so turn sweet wines, but can also be labeled as barsac. A semillon dominating the blend here because of its susceptibility to botrytis, and this is where we really begin to see noble rot coming into the wines. And then our final stop here, so turn, actually the home to not only sweet wines, but also dry wines, although the dry wines are more likely to be labeled under the generic Bordeaux Apelacian. It's the sweet wines that really command prestige here. Again, this blend of semillon and sauvignon, but often also with muscadel, which is this exotic perfumed grape that enhances the aromatics sovignon. They tend to be high alcohol, sweet, but balanced with this very high acidity coming from sovignon blanc with lots of apricot citrus peel. These real bitter orange marmalade and saffron characters you get from so turn. And lots of toast, oak smoke vanilla from new oak use. These are sweet wines that are designed for strong amounts of aging. Thinking about key factors natural and human that are in play in the left bank of Bordeaux for those exams. It's really thinking about grape varieties, why we might blend here. And this is all tied into both the conditions for grape growing, climate throughout the year, and obviously the actual varieties themselves and what they add to blends. You will quite often get questions asking about why Cabane might be blended with merlot here or why merlot might be blended with Cabane. And in connection to that, why we see lots of new oak use and lots of aging in bordeaux wines. It's really about being able to tie all of these factors together. Natural factors in the vineyard, human factors in the winery, and connecting that to the grape varieties used, and then the style of the wine. And in addition to that, you might find questions about differences in style between Bordeaux Apelacian or Bordeaux superior wines and the actual commune or Chateau, these crew wines, looking for you to make this connection between Merlo dominating in the blend being easier to grow. Therefore, producing these light, fruity, red and black fruited simple bordeaux appylacian wines in comparison to much more concentrated intense wines being able to take that gamble to use higher percentages of cabernet sauvignon in the blend. This is really one of the key questions that often gets asked. And it's trying to make these connections between the factors in the vineyard, the factors in the winery and the style of wine produced, and therefore, the Apelastion with which it will be labeled. This is a theme we will continue to talk about in the next episode when we tackle the right bank of Bordeaux and Andre de Maire. In this episode, we'll be looking at the right bank of Bordeaux and Andre de Maire map. In the last couple of episodes, we've been looking broadly at Bordeaux and then focusing on the left bank of Bordeaux where we tend to see Cabernet sauvignon dominated wines. We also took a little bit of a dive into the Appalachian System there. In this podcast, we're going to focus on the right bank Bordeaux wines, which are the red wines that are dominated by Merlo rather than Cabane in the blend. We're also going to look at entre demur. Let's start by looking at the Appalachian system here because it is different to that that we find in the left bank. Here, the Appalachian system is based upon GRong Cruise, and the shadows can be ranked in the Santemilian classification. Now the centimillion classification differs from the classification in the Medock because it is a classification that is updated roughly every ten years. And within this, shadows can be promoted or demoted up and down the appalachian Grand Crew pyramid. For example, taking Grand Crew, Grand Crew Class, class B or premier Grand Crew class A. This is quite an exciting system because of this constant updating and reclassification, and it does tend to mean that it's slightly more focused on quality because each of the wines is tasted blind and then classified. So speaking of Santemilian, this Apolación on the right bank Bordeaux, let's take a little look in more detail about what makes Samsungameleon so special. It's merlot dominated here because it tends to be too cool for cabernet sauvignon to ripen successfully. Now you do see cabernet sauvignon in the blend, but you will also see cabernet franc which is a little bit easier to ripen in this area. One of the reasons that we see a high dominance of merlot is the soils here. We have a real mix with small pockets of gravel where you tend to find the small plantings of cabernet sauvignon. But also then with clay limestone escarpments and sandy soils on the plains. So these are soils that are a lot cooler. Take longer to warm up, a lot more dense, particularly when you come to the clay. And therefore harder to keep warm, so much more suited to the easier ripening grapes of merlot. As a result, the wines from Santameleon in general tend to only have medium to high tannins. Medium to high acidity and both red berry and black berry flavors, often taking notes of tobacco and cedar and tend to be softer and more fruity than the wines of the left bank. Also classically ready for drinking younger. So less aging needed here to integrate the wines. Nearby to the Afelacian of Santemilian, we have pomerol This is an area that is really well known for rich, spicy, blackberry, fruited wines of great character. They're full bodied, ripe, and made in relatively limited quantities. There's lots of small plots of land here, so it's not large vineyards. There's also lots of high production costs. It's more difficult here. Also around this region, you have smaller appylations of the Blai, côte de bordeaux, fronque côte de bordeaux, and castillon côte de bordeaux wines tend to be dominated by merlot, fruitier, much more similar to a bordeaux superior than, for example, a pomerole or a santa medium. Across the Appalachian, so the other side of Montreal de Maeur near the river Garon, we have also Caliac, which is another coat de bordeaux in a similar style. It's just across the river. All of these coat de bordeaux wines I find offer great value for money with merlot based blends, really a little bit more intensity and richness than Bordeaux superior Bordeaux Apolacium, but without the price tag of the other Bordeaux wines. Finally, let's discuss entree demer. This is an appalachian, which is literally between the seas and sits between the two rivers of the garage and doe doeing. In this kind of central area where the Jironde estuary splits. Now here, it's really well known for white wines. Because the red wines from this area can only be labeled with the Apolacian name of Bordeaux Apolacium. If you see entre de Merr wines, these are gonna be dry wines from sauvignon blanc, And occasionally some semillon fresh, fruity, and light. Finally, before we wrap up, just a couple of notes on key things to be considering when we talk about the right bank. Again, really, this focus on soil type here and its impact on grapes what you can grow and their ability to ripen. You may well get questions about style for the comparison between a Santemilian or Pomerole wine and those of the communes of the left bank. So Margo or Poyak, for example, and really you're trying to think here about soil impact, percentage of particular grapes in the blend, etcetera. Common questions often include a picture of a label from either a right bank or left bank, Appalachian, and the need to discuss the style of the wine using a systematic approach to tasting note. So using the correct terminology of WSET, and then a discussion about why there is this style. So you could be talking about the natural factors of soils, which lead to grape choices. You could then be talking about grape choices and the connection to winemaking, so use of new oak or less use of oak depending on the grape varieties, etcetera. Join me next time when we start discussing the doe doeing and other appylations in Southwest France. Thanks for listening to this episode of Italian wine podcast brought to you by Vineet Lee Academy. Home of the gold standard of Italian wine education. Do you want to be the next ambassador? Apply online at the Italy international dot com. For courses in London, Austria, and Hong Kong, the twenty seventh to the twenty ninth of July. Remember to subscribe and like Italian wine podcast and catch us on Sound flat, Spotify, and wherever you get your pods. You can also find our entire back catalog of episodes at Italian wine podcast dot com. Hi, guys. I'm Joy Livingston, and I am the producer of the Italian wine podcast. Thank you for listening. We are the only wine podcast that has been doing a daily show since the pandemic began. 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