The Médoc (; ) is a region of
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, well known as a
wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...
growing region, located in the ''
département'' of
Gironde, on the left bank of the
Gironde estuary, northwest of
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...
. Its name comes from ''(
Pagus) Medullicus'', or "country of the ''
Medulli''", the local
Celt
The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...
ic tribe. The region owes its economic success mainly to the production of red wine; it is home to around 1,500
vineyard
A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...
s.
The area also has pine forests and long sandy beaches. The Médoc's geography is not ideal for wine grape growing, with its proximity to the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...
resulting in a comparatively mild climate and high rainfall making grape rot a constant problem. It is generally believed that the nature of the region's wine derives from the soil; although the terrain is flat, excellent drainage is present and the increased amount of gravel in the soil allows heat to be retained, encouraging ripening, and extensive root systems.
Viticulture
With the exception of
Château Haut-Brion from
Graves, all of the red wines in the
1855 Classification are from the Médoc. Many of the Médoc wines that are not in this classification were classified using the
Cru Bourgeois system until 2007. Following legal challenges this category was abolished, and reintroduced in 2010 as an annual "mark of quality" depending on independent annual assessment.
See also
*
Bordeaux wine regions
The wine regions of Bordeaux in France are a large number of wine growing areas, differing widely in size and sometimes overlapping, which lie within the overarching wine region of Bordeaux, centred on the city of Bordeaux and covering the whole ...
External links
Médoc The Wine DoctorVisit MédocAbout MédocFrench-English guide book to enotourism in Médoc
{{DEFAULTSORT:Medoc
Geography of Gironde
Nouvelle-Aquitaine region articles needing translation from French Wikipedia