Even the most casual wine drinker has heard of Bordeaux. One of the biggest and most popular wine regions in the world, it’s known for producing several of the best bottles in existence so needless to say it’s home to some seriously pricey wines.
However, what can actually be classified as a Bordeaux wine can be confusing. There are a number of regulations governing exactly which grapes can be grown there, how they are grown and even how much alcohol a wine can contain. Of course, wines that don’t follow these rules can be made in Bordeaux, but they will not be permitted to use the prestigious AOC label.
There are more than 50 wine appellations in Bordeaux, meaning a legally defined area where grapes are grown, and you guessed it, each appellation can also have its own separate rules. In Bordeaux, the region is generally referred to in terms of its rivers; the Gironde, Garonne and Dordogne with wine unofficially described as being ‘left bank’ or ‘right bank’ depending on which side of the river the grapes are grown. As a very general – though certainly not hard and fast – rule, the left bank is better known for Cabernet Sauvignon-dominated blends, while the right is renowned for its Merlot.
Often referred to as a claret, red Bordeaux is generally made from a blend of grapes, with the designated varieties including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Carmenere. White wines are generally made from Semillion and Sauvignon Blanc but can also include the permitted grape varieties Sauvignon Gris, Ugni Blanc, Colombard, Merlot Blanc, Ondenc and Mauzac. In 2021, four new red and two new white grape varieties were also formally approved for use in Bordeaux to help the region adjust to future climate change. However, these cannot make up more than 10 per cent of the final wine and will not appear on labels.
Though wine from some of Bordeaux’s most famous producers like Margaux, Lafite-Rothschild and Mouton-Rothschild can set you back several hundred (if not thousand) pounds, there’s no need to avoid Bordeaux wine if you don’t have a billionaire’s budget. Swerve the big names and there are some fantastic wines to choose from.
Look for wines from less well-known appellations designated as Medoc, Fronsac, Cotes de Blaye and Entre Deux Mers to keep the price down, or choose wine marked Bordeaux or Bordeaux Supérieur which are both made from wine from anywhere in the Bordeaux AOP region. Just remember that every Bordeaux will benefit if you open it half an hour to an hour before drinking.
Best Bordeaux vintage wines at a glance:
- Best overall: Château Pierbone, Haut-Médoc 2010 - £14.95, The Wine Society
- Best Merlot-based Bordeaux vintage: Clarendelle Bordeaux 2016 - £19.99, Laithwaites
- Best special occasion Bordeaux vintage: Le Dragon de Quintus 2016 - £39.90, Hedonism Wines
- Best Bordeaux vintage from a supermarket: ASDA Extra Special Château Leboscq Médoc - £11.50, ASDA
- Best Bordeaux vintage for bringing to a dinner party: Chateau Lauzanet Bordeaux Rouge 2020 - £14.99, Virgin Wines
- Best Bordeaux vintage for serving with cheese: Rick Stein Bordeaux Superieur - £14.95, Rick Stein
- Best white Bordeaux: L’émigré Blanc 2022 - £15.99, Virgin Wine
- Best Bordeaux vintage to save for later: Chateau Armens St Emilion Grand Cru 2019 - £34.99, Naked Wines
- Best budget white Bordeaux: Mouton Cadet Bordeaux Blanc - £10.95, Slurp
- Best Bordeaux vintage under £15: Château Paret AOC Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux - £13.99, The Wine Flyer
Shop the best below
Château Pierbone, Haut-Médoc 2010
Best: Overall
ABV: 13.5 per cent
Grape: Cabernet Merlot blend
Vintage: 2010
2010 is renowned as one of the all-time great Bordeaux vintages, producing some of the best (and most expensive) red wines in the world. A particularly dry summer and warm autumn meant grapes had a superb balance of flavour, freshness and natural sugar, making wines top-notch even at this more reasonable price point.
This wine is produced by Château Peyrabon which has vineyards in both the Haut-Médoc and Pauillac appellations. Château Pierbone is the estate’s second cru bourgeois and is made from grapes grown within the Haut-Médoc appellation where the terroir is a mix of sand, gravel, clay and limestone. It has a velvety smoothness, fine tannins and a fresh finish, with flavours of blackcurrant, leather and spice that linger on the palate. Startlingly good value for this vintage, it’s a pure joy to drink.
Buy now £14.95, The Wine Society
Clarendelle Bordeaux 2016
Best: Merlot-based Bordeaux
ABV: 13.5 per cent
Grape: Merlot-based blend
Vintage: 2016
A bottle of 2016 Bordeaux from acclaimed wine estate Haut-Brion sells for around £500 so it’s unlikely most of us will get our hands on one any time soon. The Haut-Brion estate itself was bought by American financier Clarence Dillon in the 1930s and his family went on to extend their reach across Bordeaux. Clarendelle is the world of Dillon’s great-grandson, Prince Robert of Luxembourg, and the estate says this Merlot-based blend is inspired by its famous relative without the gobsmacking price tag. A win-win in our book.
It's certainly a wonderfully smooth claret from an exceptional year. 2016 saw a wet winter and spring but a summer drought which gave grapes a remarkable freshness and produced seriously well-balanced wine. This one is softly textured and fruity, with notes of red fruit, blackcurrant, plums and even chocolate on the palate. All this and you won’t need a bank loan to buy it.
Buy now £19.99, Laithwaites
Le Dragon de Quintus 2016
Best: Special occasion Bordeaux
ABV: 15 per cent
Grape: Merlot and Cabernet Franc
Vintage: 2016
Crack out a decent Bordeaux wine and you’ll know you’re celebrating. This one is produced by Château Quintus and its name is taken from the dragon statue in Saint-Emilion where the estate is located. Perched on a promontory, the Château has views of the Dordogne valley in every direction plus exceptional terroir with a range of micro-climates and limestone soils that produce world-class Merlot.
This red is as fresh and fruity as you’d expect from a wine of excellent 2016 vintage. Bright red in the glass, it has a powerful nose of plums and cherry with similar flavours on the palate. It has tannins aplenty with a silky-smooth texture, medium body and good balance with a hit of pepper underpinning the juicy fruitiness. Serve it up with a Sunday roast and you’ll never look back.
Buy now £39.90, Hedonism Wines
ASDA Extra Special Château Leboscq Médoc
Best: Bordeaux vintage from a supermarket
ABV: 13.5 per cent
Grape: Cabernet sauvignon and Merlot
Vintage: 2016
Proof that there’s no need to spend a fortune to treat yourself to a good Bordeaux vintage from a named Château, this bottle from ASDA’s premium range is a fantastic buy. Better still, it’s already picked up bronze medals in both the Decanter World Wine Awards and the IWSC awards in 2023 so you know you’re in for a treat.
Delightfully complex on the nose, it’s full of smoky, plummy aromas with a hit of cherry and even leather. It’s not quite as heavy-going on the palate, with plenty of smooth, red fruit flavours and a creamy caramel note that helps it slip down a treat. We reckon it would be heavenly alongside tender lamb and roasted vegetables – and at this price, you can buy two bottles. If you’d rather spend even less, we also rate the ASDA Extra Special Grand Vin de Bordeaux Medoc which is under a tenner and an outright bargain.
Buy now £11.50, ASDA
Château Lauzanet Bordeaux Rouge 2020
Best: Bordeaux vintage for bringing to a dinner party
ABV: 14.5 per cent
Grape: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc
Vintage: 2020
Another well-priced Bordeaux that you can enjoy without fretting about the price tag.
This one’s made at Château Lauzanet by winemaker Patrick Forcato. He’s the third generation of his family to produce wine on a 15-hectare estate with south-facing vineyards and clay, sand and limestone soils which allow the production of all the classic Bordeaux grape varieties. It’s a classic blend of the three best-known and makes for a generous, structured wine with a full palate, dark fruit flavours and nicely spicy undertones. A little lighter than some of the other Bordeaux vintages we tried, we reckon it’s ideal for easy guzzling and sharing with friends – though we won’t judge if you keep it all to yourself.
Buy now £14.99, Virgin Wines
Rick Stein Bordeaux Superieur
Best: Bordeaux vintage for serving with cheese
ABV: 14 per cent
Grape: Merlot and Cabernet
Vintage: 2018
Celebrity chef Rick Stein is a self-confessed Francophile who first visited the country over 50 years ago and has since travelled there countless times to feast on its celebrated food and drink.
It’s no surprise that he has now added a Bordeaux to his small own-label wine range available to order from his website. This one is actually the brainchild of his son Charlie, who worked closely with the winemaker to create the wine, while Rick’s daughter-in-law Kate designed the label from her home studio in Cornwall. While it’s not quite as sophisticated as some of Bordeaux’s pricier wines, it’s a soft, fruity claret full of blackberry flavours, approachable tannins and a medium body that we could drink all night long alongside a heaving cheese board.
Buy now £14.95, Rick Stein
L’émigré Blanc 2022
Best: White Bordeaux
ABV: 13 per cent
Grape: Sauvignon blend
Vintage: 2022
Though many assume Bordeaux produces only red wine, the region is also home to some fantastic crisp whites well worth discovering.
This bottle is a bespoke Virgin Wines blend with winemakers Nic and Sean Allison from Château du Seuil, a small but pioneering organic wine estate. The blending session was originally intended to create a red but instead resulted in a classic Sauvignon Semillon blend that is ridiculously drinkable, ideal for sipping now or until the end of 2026 if you have patience. Crisp and complex, it has subtle notes of floral and citrus flavours and enough acidity to hold its own against most foods. Better still, it adheres to the principles of HVE Certification which ensures it was made while prioritising the protection of the environment. A thumbs up all round then.
Buy now £15.99, Virgin Wines
Château Armens St Emilion Grand Cru 2019
Best: Bordeaux vintage to save for later
ABV: 14.5 per cent
Grape: Merlot blend
Vintage: 2019
Bordeaux reds don’t come more classic than this. It’s produced by winemaker Alexandre de Malet Roquefort whose family have been making some of the world’s most prestigious wines at their Saint-Emilion estate since the 18th century.
A recent silver medal winner at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2023, the wine is made using the best fruit on the estate and is aged for a year in French oak barrels to add complexity. It’s a big juicy number that brims with red fruit flavours, dark cherries and warming spices that would make it go down a dream at Christmas. In fact, it’s perfect to drink until the end of 2030 but we’re not sure we could wait that long.
Buy now £34.99, Naked Wines
Mouton Cadet Bordeaux Blanc
Best: Budget white Bordeaux
ABV: 13 per cent
Grape: Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Muscadelle
Vintage: 2020
A great way to discover Bordeaux wines without spending a fortune, the Mouton Cadet range is a reliable gateway to this sometimes baffling region. It’s made by the Baron Phillippe de Rothschild winery, whose flagship Château Mouton Rothschild wine can often run into thousands. Mouton Cadet was created by Rothschild to bring the flavours and richness of the finest Bordeaux to a wider audience.
A gorgeous gold in the glass, this vegan wine is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc for fruitiness and Semillon for texture with just a splash of aromatic Muscadelle and it’s already been awarded a gold medal at the Decanter World Wine Awards. Brightly aromatic with a mix of spring flowers and lemon, a full-bodied and exhilarating palate delivers tropical flavours of grapefruit, apricot and white blossom with an added grounding grassiness. One sip of this and you’ll feel like the sun’s out whatever the weather.
Buy now £10.95, Slurp
Château Paret AOC Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux
Best: Bordeaux vintage red under £15
ABV: 13.5 per cent
Grape: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2020
Leave the big-bucks bottles to the mega-wealthy. Most of us are happy splurging on around £15 to get a really great wine that we won’t need to feel guilty about cracking open on an average weekend.
This is a wonderful all-rounder from an estate along the edge of the Saint-Emillion appellation. It’s smooth and fruity enough to drink all on its own in front of a fire and Netflix, with juicy notes of raspberry and strawberry to keep things light. Yet its medium body and hint of spice means it would also go down a treat alongside a good steak. What more could you ask of a Bordeaux?
Buy now £14.99, The Wine Flyer
Verdict
You won’t regret buying any wine listed here but we especially loved the Château Pierbone, Haut-Médoc 2010 which is a gorgeous fresh example of a Bordeaux yet still costs under £15. When only white will do, head straight for the L’émigré Blanc 2022, a true crisply citrus delight.
