From the 2025 harvest, Médoc châteaux producing white wine will now have the right to claim under the Médoc AOC wines which until now were officially only “simple” Bordeaux. Thus, unlike the Entre-Deux-Mers AOC which, in 2024, gave a voice to the reds produced in its area, the Médoc AOC last July honoured with its title (1) the whites made there in an ambitious style. Let us look more closely at the conditions that carried a project whose merit is to have given patents of nobility to products confined to an all-purpose label, and whose adoption did not ignore very current considerations of environmental respect.
A still timid rebirth
While the Graves region is acknowledged as the land of choice for Bordeaux whites, the same cannot be said of the Médoc, where white production is nonetheless attested since the 18th century. Then very confidential compared with that of reds, the colour nevertheless persisted through the vicissitudes of the following centuries, to finally acquire a full place in the Médoc vineyard from the 1980s. Since then it has never ceased to arouse enthusiasm throughout the whole hierarchy of châteaux, nearly a hundred of which now produce it. In this regard, however, one must keep a sense of proportion, since the total of white vines covers in all barely 240 ha. That said, those who engage in it nonetheless include Premiers Grands Crus Classés, Château Margaux and Château Mouton-Rothschild to name but them. No less estimable classified growths have followed in their footsteps, followed in turn by a set of châteaux of all statuses. To date, some thirty of them have declared their harvest under the new label, an encouraging number but still far from those who would be in a position to claim it.
A brief history of whites in the Médoc
An 18th-century treatise attests to white wine production at Blanquefort, a commune in the Médoc just north of Bordeaux. That said, despite its attachment to the Médoc, its whites were then marketed as Graves wines (these already being renowned at the time) and would continue to be until the 1960s under the name “Graves de Blanquefort”. Indeed, although promulgated in 1938, the Médoc appellation d’origine decree, exclusive to reds, granted them a long period of tolerance before putting an end to an era that will have lasted more than two centuries. The same would apply to the use of the name Listrac for whites produced in that commune as well as to those bluntly bearing the Médoc label, made in other sectors and notably in an area close to the estuary, now declassified and even free of any vines.
Whatever their designation, the white wines produced in the Médoc therefore did indeed exist. However, their volume was always very modest, not to say confidential, compared with that of reds. A few scattered figures give a good idea of their marginality in the 19th century, while at their peak, in the 1920s, a reference work (the Féret guide) confirms it by giving a volume produced of 17,000 hl. This figure is tiny since it represents about 5% of the Médoc’s current production. It is equivalent to a little under 600 ha for an average yield that can be estimated at 30 hl/ha at the time. Although very modest, this area is nonetheless well above the roughly 240 ha totalled by today’s white vineyard.
What are the white terroirs?
The fact that the historic heartland of Médoc whites is located in Blanquefort is not fortuitous, the winegrowers of the time having detected the aptitude of its soils for the colour. The 1850 Féret guide describes this terroir as “a base of red and white gravel mixed in a few places with clay and sand”. These terms would readily be used to define soils of the Graves region proper, of which one finds here a sort of extension. Today, this complex is described as clay-gravel, at least in this commune. These gravel soils are, moreover, constant across the extent of the Médoc, geology distinguishing the oldest gravels, known as Pyrenean, of clay-sand texture, and the Garonne gravels, which are stonier. However, at Listrac, it is a limestone substrate outcropping in clay-limestone formations that determines the gifts of its terroir for whites. Indeed, after a flourishing past, the colour is experiencing an undeniable rebirth there today. It is, moreover, its most prosperous Médoc pole, where no fewer than seven châteaux produce it.
The soils of Listrac are not limited to this clay-limestone terroir and also include Pyrenean gravels on its upper and middle terraces, which proudly bear white vines. The configuration of its vineyard thus illustrates the soundness of the plantings that spread over the whole Médoc area after the phylloxera period up to the crisis of 1929. This phenomenon had the merit of revealing the plasticity of the main types of Médoc soils, admittedly gifted for reds, but also suited to whites. What was intuitive or empirical in the past is moreover confirmed today by a more rigorous pedological approach. The plot layout has thus been redefined in all cases, whether it be a search for better soil/variety matches, new delimitations or replanting. This has led to better exploitation of each terroir with a view to white wine, and to incidentally revealing a sensory typology specific to its nature.
A wisely broadened grape-variety mix
The white wines currently produced in Bordeaux are made almost exclusively from three grape varieties: Sauvignon, Sémillon and Muscadelle, the first being by far the most used for dry wines. Including Sauvignon Gris, a variant of Sauvignon Blanc, this trilogy is the one authorised by the decrees of the Graves and Pessac-Léognan AOCs. It was logically adopted for the Médoc blanc AOC in order to seal this type of grape-variety mix which, after all, forms part of its genetic heritage. That said, if the new appellation thus ratifies a practice anchored in tradition, its regulations do not exclude forward-looking considerations prompted by climate change. The range of authorised varieties has therefore been extended to entirely different varieties, supposed to cope better with the constraints of a climate that is constantly being disrupted. The latter have been gathered under a label that conveys their disparate character well, giving them the title of VIFA varieties, for “Variétés d’Intérêt à Fin d’Adaptation” (varieties of interest for adaptation purposes). These are in this case alvarinho, used in Portugal and Spain under the name albariño, and liliorila, a variety obtained by crossbreeding (2), but whose plantings have remained very confidential. To these have been added specific varieties, known as resistant (3), a well-chosen term to underline precisely their proven resistance to fungal diseases of the vine. Their names are floréal, sauvignac and souvignier gris.
Currently, the so-called VIFA varieties are used only on an experimental basis in the Bordeaux region, which minimises the scope of the AOC provisions aimed at using them to face the diseases accentuated by climate change. Their practical adoption in the grape-variety mix of Médoc whites is therefore not yet on the agenda, nor indeed for the near future. Under these conditions, such an arrangement within the AOC decree seems hasty to a certain extent, all the more so as the regulations limit their share to 5% of the plantings devoted to the AOC from the outset. Such restraint in the face of the aforementioned concerns is surprising, unless one considers, not without reason, an appellation of origin from the angle of its fundamentals, framed by the famous motto that advocates “local, loyal and constant practices” in wine-growing and winemaking.
An appellation that is above all about identity
What was said earlier about grape varieties perfectly situates the main orientation of the Médoc blanc AOC, namely to affirm and preserve a common base that has proved itself through whites that convince by their level of quality and a style in which ambition is the rule. The fruit of Bordeaux’s traditional varieties, this style also owes itself to know-how in which ageing in oak barrels holds a large place, since almost all the châteaux concerned engage in it. And it is quite logically that the specifications of the nascent appellation impose the use of suitable vessels in order to respect the sensory characters that make up the Médoc identity in the colour. This measure was nevertheless enacted in a spirit of openness so as to leave free rein to the diversity of expressions that characterise the Médoc white landscape. As a result, the obligation of such ageing concerns only 30% of the volume of finished wine. Also regulated, its duration is not binding either, since it is required for a period of at least 3 months. However, whatever the vessel in which it sits, a white Médoc is entitled to its title only from 31 March of the year following its harvest, a provision related to the previous one, which ultimately recommends a minimum of 6 months in wood.
Compared with their previous status, that of the Bordeaux AOC, whites claiming the Médoc AOC will be subject to other requirements, even if it is permissible to think that most of them, if not the majority, were already complying. Thus, in agronomy, the notion of terroir is clearly put forward by a formal ban on altering the nature of a plot’s soil in order to preserve its integrity. Absent from the texts governing white Bordeaux, this provision nevertheless appeared in those of red Médocs. In the same logic, chemical weeding must not be systematic, while the frequency of plant-protection treatments (pesticides in particular) is subject to declaration. These latter measures meet the societal imperatives of our time, where respect for the environment is becoming a priority and is translated into cultivation practices that are applied in the Médoc according to the châteaux that follow them, far from numerous as yet. Without seeking to establish a cause-and-effect link between such an approach and its benefit to a wine’s identity, one can only welcome such an awareness within the vineyard.
Mohamed Boudellal
(1) The specifications combining the Médoc rouge and Médoc blanc appellations, inaugural for the latter, were approved by order of 31 July 2025.
(2) Liliorila comes from a cross between the varieties baroque and chardonnay. It is currently planted on less than one hectare in the Bordeaux region!
(3) Resistant varieties result from crosses of European vines – Vitis vinifera – and American vines so as to obtain varieties resistant to cryptogamic diseases, such as downy mildew and powdery mildew, to mention only the most common.
