hello everybody my name is jimmy smith and welcome to the wine with jimmy presentation here on um bordeaux this is the first of four presentations on bordeaux so this is part of our free content for the wine with jimmy youtube channel the first three sessions will be available for everybody and the fourth will be a members only you can find out more information about signing up to the wine with jimmy e learning portal by visiting the website www.winewithjimmy.com lots more information there including written questions and answers multiple choice questions revision sessions flash cards more videos lots available to help you prepare yourself for the wset level 3 examination please have a look and subscribe in your own time so let's take a look at our first section on bordeaux so on this we'll look at bordeaux look a bit of geography and then start to talk about the climate and weather of the area we'll then focus on the right bank and we're beginning with pomerol here and then discussing key grape varieties like merlot and cabernet franc we'll look at a few infographics as well to help us with this and as it says at the bottom included a working written question so at the end of this presentation we'll go through a few questions in the written format and answer them so you get a feel for what wset may ask in the examination and so you are well prepared for it um all the social media is found at the bottom of each slide one with jimmy is my my two wine schools west london wine school south london wine school are in the middle and then and stretton house is my bar in london the united kingdom okay so uh here is some vineyards in palm roll so this is view chateau certain um and we're going to have a bit of a video looking at some very famous estates including this one uh in a little bit so first of all let's um talk about the region of bordeaux so bordeaux is located in the south west of france um in the region of aquitaine which takes its name from water aqua because this is a land of water rivers rainfall and oceans bordeaux as well gives its name to this bort and o meaning the border of water and that's because this is a city which is once again dominated by moisture all year round so the rivers the rainfall and the oceans it is the largest aoc region in france with around 120 000 hectares of vines 90 percent of what bordeaux produces is red dominated mainly by merlot that we'll talk about today and then 10 percent is your white or sweet wine production in the region and which actually therefore equates to somewhere around 12 000 hectares so it's actually not insignificant it just looks insignificant because it's only 10 percent but it is such a large quality wine region so there is quite a bit produced in this region okay um so we won't go into too much detail i mean i'll give you a little bit of history just because i think it's important with bordeaux really just to sort of outline the success of this region is really due to three empire influences and that is the um the rule for 300 years of the british which firmly cemented um bordeaux into the british mines and across the british empire the dutch were huge innova innovators here and planters of vines certainly draining the marshes of the medoc and planting vines in leonon and pesach um and then of course the french so it's a frontier place really it's a city and a wine region as on the gateway to the new world and with a huge amount of empire influence and that's why bordeaux today is remarkably important across the world um so that is the bordeaux region um so here it is a little bit closer it is a very complicated area with many separate small villages and aocs it therefore takes a bit of time to structure your revision to understand bordeaux so that's how we're doing it in these four videos we'll tackle um pomerol and merlot in this one the next one is saint emilion and then the ones after that are the left bank with cabernet sauvignon and the white and sweet wines of bordeaux so it is really quite important to understand all those key areas uh with these classic great varieties the general climate of bordeaux is what we call a moderate maritime climate okay so a moderate maritime climate um immediately if we talk about that moderate of course because it is tempered by the atlantic maritime the same thing you will find that rainfall is a very common factor all year round in this area um this um these problems that we find here we're going to list um and then we'll talk about how that impacts the wines in this area as well so moderate maritime one thing which is a positive is that there is a lot of air flow throughout this area and that is due to its proximity on the bay of biscay and the in fact the effect of the atlantic so therefore the settling spring frosts are um are very rare you don't tend to find too much of an issue with frosts maybe more so as you go into areas like the right bank but still it is not the most common problem in this area um one thing here that is very worth talking about is what we call the lond pine forest and let's just draw this in so you understand whereabouts this is so the land pine forest is all down here this kind of area and that lond pine forest is the largest man-made forest in europe it's 1.1 million hectares large it's very very sizable and the sheer volume of these trees act as a buffer against the the sort of salty cold winds of the atlantic so it kind of um it kind of buffers it and reduces the issues of the atlantic also around arcachon which is the bay of archeon here great for oysters and what you'll find dotted up this area are sand dunes and we're not talking about little tiny sand dunes that you might find on british coast these are huge uh deposited sand dunes they are the size of quite large hills and they take quite a long time to walk up i've tried it and done it and they have spectacular views so another factor which really will sort of help protect against the against the atlantic but as we mentioned it is still going to be an area dominated by rainfall all year round and that brings of course lots of humidity the issues of rainfall all year round are listed here so it can disrupt flowering of course so this means of course you are looking at uh sort of late uh sort of late spring early summer and flowering needs to be in conditions which are quite consistent if there is inclement weather and if it is a bit too windy or rainy then that of course will um upset the flowering and you won't get even flowering and a reduction of flowering so this can reduce yields and that of course um can also be for fruit set as well so if it's heavy rainfall as the fruit is setting and flour it may be pollination was successful but then the rain is quite heavy that can also cause problems with the fruit set so it won't set properly and that reduces yields again it can promote mildew and rot certainly with enough heat and warmth and then that moisture you'll find problems with mildew it's an area that has tackled mildew and rot all of its life and that is why there's quite heavy amounts of spraying done traditionally in this region and of course if it rains during sort of september october time when grapes are due to be harvested the vine remember is a very proactive stage of its life um at the end of the year and it will take up water quite easily and that could dilute the grapes leading to a bloating of grapes and a dilution of the harvest it can reduce the quality um so quite a quite a list of things there to sort of talk about and and to mention all of this leads to vintage variation so bordeaux is not the most consistent of areas and that is why it is heavily talked about amongst the press and in reviews and by all of us about this vintage being better than this vintage and that one's better than this and so on and that's vintage variation which is very very um very very varied in this region but changes in canopy management techniques maximizing sunlight aeration to minimize mildew have resulted in healthier grapes um spraying um now classically spraying with copper and sulfur and copper sulfate and lime which is your bordeaux mixture has been very heavy in this area it's being rained back today certainly with more organic and biodynamic practices in the region but still it's an area that has had issues with toxicity of the soils due to overuse of things like copper but there has been certainly a mark of movement of quality in the last 20 30 years higher quality wines being produced and heavier selection and this is even in terms of creating more wines like second wines and these second wines are where your less quality grapes go into and that means you only reserve the best quality grapes for your your grand your top wine your main wine of the chateau so there's a few things about the macro climate and how it affects the bordeaux region so we are going to what's classically known and i'm sure you know this as the right bank and it's called the right bank as it sits to the right hand side of all of the rivers so here we have the dordoyn that is running in from the east here meanders its way past le bourne as it goes to meet the garron and the confluence creates there the gerond big shipping estuary so this is the door doing so you sometimes might see this written as the door door in areas or dordoen region or as the libor nay and that's because of the city here or the right bank now we are not going to mention saint emilion and all of its glory or its satellites here in this one because that will be done on the next presentation this is purely looking at pomerol so we're talking about pomerol and merlot on this one and a bit of cabernet franc with the saint emilian one what i wanted to show you was more around the classification because it's a very important part to understand so that will be tackled in video two so there is pomerol clearly identified to the north east of libourne um there is a sub district called leland de pomero which makes of uh often slightly sore less complex wines but it is pomerol the famous a village and its region that is making some of the most um perhaps powerful wines of this area now this is a little bit more continental less maritime here because we are a bit more inland but we still do classify this as a maritime climate so we're going to look at a quick video of the area and this is basically looking at um just the right bank bordeaux um just looking at saint emilion and then we'll go to pomerol so we get an idea of these key places and i'm gonna show you a couple of key chateau in this area as well so here we go um hopefully this loads up quite soon there we are there is the glorious nation of france and we head down to the water the land of water which is the bordeaux region look at the big shipping estuary of the giant which is up up here and then we have our door door in here where it states pomerol and saint emilion so there it is now focusing on saint emilian which is also just to the north east of the doordoing and then finally to pomerol which is just to the northeast of le bourne and the dordogne river it's a raised plateau it is not the hilliest of landscapes but you'll see very um very well placed vineyards here pretty much crammed into a very small area this is chateau le pan which is a very famous pomerol and you'll see it in the picture there with its newer visitor center and then we have chateau petrus which of course is possibly one of the most famous wines of the whole of bordeaux very close by so what kind of style does pomerol wines make so i've mentioned already that lalonda pomerho which is your your your sub district makes slightly lighter styles pomerol there is variation but classically pomeroy wines are very full bodied they are made from a majority of merlot which we're going to talk about in a second but there tends to be due to often influence here of certain wine makers and flying wine makers there tends to be quite heavy extraction here and quite ripe fruit so you'll find the wines tend to be quite dark deep coloured and very big full bodied alcoholic with some very big structure behind them and so they are some of the most uh sort of spicier richer styles and often with black fruit which is not the most common type of color of fruit for merlot um so yeah the pomerol and it's not a big area it's a small area it's nowhere near as big as saint emilion and so the key great variety is merlot okay so um merlot is a great variety that needs warmth and it requires ripening so it's better in moderate to hot climates and here we are in a moderate climate um it's early budding and it's mid-ripening so it can suffer with spring frosts but they are not the most common here and it ripens earlier than cabernet sauvignon so it's one of the first black grape varieties to be collected in bordeaux so this is important to understand there are many great varieties in play in bordeaux majorly five reds and three whites now they all have different genetics they all have different differing ripening and this means that uh really you have quite a lot to fall back on as a bordeaux producer if you are creating a blend because it could be that there are problems with rainfall later on in the year and the cabernet sauvignon is affected but you have brought in your merlot in good conditions so merlot may be used more in that vintage for instance and that is one of the major benefits of blending um it is a vigorous fine it's fertile and it needs to be tended to in the vineyards to restrict its very high vigor so pruning is common and and intensive pruning with merlot if the grapes are not fully ripe merlot will often um exhibit this kind of herbaceous note you'll find mint is quite common but maybe a stalkiness as well it is related to cabernet so therefore you will find the similarities there but generally speaking there are two styles of merlot produced around the world and this is very generalizing but this is what wset would like you to know there is the sort of international style of merlot which is generally leaving the grapes on the vine longer that's to get higher alcohols and potentially a bit more tannic structure and deeper colors and then with heavier extraction so lots more remontage and pigeon to produce these new world and pomerol style merlots big powerful wines um you know full full bodied 14 to 15 alcohol deep deep color with dark brooding black fruits like blackberry and then really the the sort of common style for more generic bordeaux wines is the earlier harvest and it's not an early harvest but certainly earlier than what we'd say the international style so picking it when it's not as ripe maybe has a hint of that spice and herbaceous notes and some color but not the deepest often you'll have some transparency through it and more red fruited characteristics and this is common for very much generic bordeaux bordeaux superhere and then things like the coat de bordeaux wine saint emilions can be like this as well certainly at the more generic side of saint-emilion and what do you expect then from merlot in terms of aromas and flavors um so really in terms of its acidities and tannins first of all um we we tend to find that it tends to be medium to high in acidity and tannin and it depends really on picking of the grapes and it can display red and black fruits we've just mentioned that in the more international style expect black berry black cherry and then in the more sort of bordeaux style i suppose generic bordeaux style red plum maybe strawberry red cherry characteristics oak is common um you'll find that oak tends to be in the bordeaux region 12 to 18 months for more premium bordeaux wines that's things like saint-emilion and pomerol but generic bordeauxs will probably have less oak than that the other thing to mention is that um the the characteristics you may find that there is some pre-fermentation extraction that happens in the winery that's to gain more color and flavor but the skins of merlot are a bit more supple and a bit more accessible than cabernet sauvignon so that's where you tend to find actually less extraction being carried out for merlot it doesn't tend to need as much as cabernet to extract all of cabernet's characteristics for instance okay so that is merlot and merlot does account for about 60 percent of the black grape production of bordeaux so it's a huge huge producer the secondary grape of pomerol and of the right bank as a general is cabernet franc so therefore not cabernet sauvignon so it leads with merlot and a secondary grape is cabernet franc so it is widely used in the right bank i mean it's not extensively used but you'll find it around the right bank of course there are small amounts of it on the left bank and it be used in small percentages five or ten percent but because cabernet sauvignon is so dominant on the left bank cabernet franc tends to take a much minor role uh as cabernet gives the characteristics that are needed cabernet sauvignon it prefers well drained warm soils like it's um offspring cabernet sauvignon so it's quite fond of gravels and limestone rocks um but it's it's much more liked on gravels and and it loves that warmth behind it it has less body and tannin than its um progeny cabernet sauvignon so you tend to find it's more elegant it adds more fruitiness and floral notes into a blend but when it's picked under ripe essentially if this is in a poorer vintage in bordeaux you can find that the herbaceous and stalky note maybe tomato stalk maybe mint or any kind of green leaf characteristic may be quite intense in bordeaux that tends to be quite negative in the lower valley it tends to be a part of cabernet franc's life it's it's a real key character but not so much here but when ripe often very bright vibrant red fruit and floral compounds are what are added to the blend with cabernet franc okay great so that's it for the theory behind this so we've looked at pomerol we've talked about merlot and we've talked about cabernet franc um so here is a label which is actually the label of the first slide that we saw which is vieux chateau certain 2009 pomegranate states the primary grape variety and the secondary grape variety likely to be found in this wine and state of the geology of the soils that it is best found on so the primary grape variety of course is merlot and this is the same for all of the right bankers for the wines so this is fronsac um saint emilion the coat wines that around here as well merlot is very fond here of clay and limestone because merlot ripens quite a lot of sugar with quite high alcohols the slightly cooler soils um like limestone and also more water retentive soils like clay tend to balance it out a bit too much it's often a little bit too over the top and too alcoholic with less balance on gravel so that's why we find it on clay and limestone the secondary grape variety here is cabernet franc and cabernet franc uh as we mentioned before a parent of cabernet sauvignon preferring therefore it shares the geology like to its offspring cabernet sauvignon it lacks well-drained drained warm gravelly stony soils um so that's why there are certain specific hot spots for it in the right bank um and with pomerol for instance there's quite a bit of this warm gravelly soil and right in the north uh west of saint emilion that borders pomerol that is the same so you find quite a bit of cabernet franc there around places like chateau cheval blanc for instance okay great so that's that question done often these premium wines so let's talk about this label here are complex powerful intense with a deep color how is this style achieved in the vineyard this is found in one of your early chapters talking about red grape growing and wine making the merlot is often harvested as late as possible from lower yields to generate the maximum possible degree of intense purple color so that's lots of um anthocyanin that's color in the skins concentrated fruit because that's being left on the vine longer and soft velvet textured tannin and that's really once again due to it being ripened well enough on the vine okay now the question is going to change so it's the same sort of structure here premium wines complex intense powerful deep color but how can you obtain this style in the winery and this is for six marks so here it's really talking about maximizing extraction so the grapes are crushed and go through a pre-fermentation extraction you may wish to write here if you want to and i'll scribble this in um cold soak excuse me cold soaking or cold maceration okay let's pop that in maceration bulk soaking full maturation is a more technical way of saying a pre-fermentation extraction this will extract color and flavor and they'll be careful consistent cap management the um the the talk around cap management is really about how you um you maximize the most from that cap but also keep it as moist as possible so it doesn't spoil and end up turning to vinegar and acetic notes so it's really keeping the cap moist but then pumping over punching down and other processes as well these will be used to further enhance color tannin and flavor oak will often be used for fermentation and or maturation 12 to 18 months which is often quite new oak to add more complexity as well so that will give more intensity and more powerful notes to there okay so hopefully that's quite knowledgeable for you and that's quite uh that's quite achievable so that brings us to a conclusion for this section on bordeaux an introduction to bordeaux pomerol and merlot i hope you found this useful it is uh the first video of four bordeaux videos with the first three being available on the youtube channel wine with jimmy as free content and then there is the members only fourth session we keep these as much of these as possible as free to you to help you in your studies of wset but we do require and we do work on of course people buying the subscriptions to our wonderful e-learning platform which is remarkably useful so please take some time have a look at that and see if it will be very useful for you in the meantime if you have any comments questions or concerns please get in touch you can comment in the comment section below this youtube video or you can get in touch with at wine with jimmy um my two wine schools are at west london wine school south london wine school and stretton winehouse is my wonderful cool little wine bar in streatham south london next time you're in london please come and see us for a class a glass or a bottle i've been jimmy smith thank you so much