habits of the French peasantry, and also the system of small holdings which prevails in France, have, there is little doubt, done much to raise the French wine industry to the pre-eminent position which it holds. There is perhaps no branch of agriculture which requires more minute attention or for which a system of small holdings is more suitable than wine culture. At the present day, wine is produced in no less than 77 departments in France, the average total yield during the past ten years being roughly 1000 million gallons. This is considerably more than the average produced previous to the phylloxera period (1882-1887). The highest production on record was in the year 1875, when roughly 1840 million gallons were produced. Although France produces such enormous quantities of wine it is a remarkable fact that more wine is imported into France than is exported from that country. The average imports are in the neighbourhood of 120 million gallons, of which rather more than one-half comes from Algeria. The exports amount to roughly 40 million gallons. Of recent years (1896-1907) the only vintages which have been deficient as regards quantity are those of 1897, 1898, 1902 and 1903, but even in the most unfavourable of these years (1898) the quantity exceeded 700 million gallons. The greatest yield in this same period was in 1900, when over 1470 million gallons were produced. The number of different varieties of wines produced in France is remarkable. The red wines include the elegant and delicate (though not unstable) wines of the Gironde, and again the full, though not coarse, wines of the Burgundy district. Among the white wines we have the full sweet Sauternes, the relatively dry and elegant Graves and Chablis, and the light white wines which produce champagne and brandy.
Gironde (Bordeaux) Wines.—If France is the wine-growing country, par excellence, the Bordeaux district may be regarded as the heart and centre of the French wine industry. Although other parts of France produce excellent wines, the Gironde is easily first if high and stable character, elegance and delicacy, variety and quantity are considered together. The total area of the departments of the Gironde is about 2½ million acres, and roughly one-fifth of this is under the vine. It forms a tract of country some 90 m. long by 60 m. broad, in which the chief watersheds are those of the Garonne, Dordogne, and their confluent the Gironde. The soil varies very considerably in its character, and it is due to these variations that so many different types of wine are produced in this district, it generally consists of limestone, or of mixed limestone and clay, or of sand and clay, or of gravel, with here and there flint and rolled quartz. The subsoil is either of clay, of limestone, or mixed sand and clay, gravel, or of a peculiar kind of pudding stone which exists in a hard and a soft variety. It is formed of sand or fine gravel cemented by infiltrated oxide of iron. This stone is known locally under the name of alios. It is generally found at a depth of about 2 ft. under the better growths of the Médoc and Graves. The subsoils of some of the other districts (Côtes and St Emilion) contain much stone in the shape of flint and quartz. The finest wines of the Médoc and Graves are largely grown on a mixture of gravel, quartz and sand with a subsoil of alios or clay. The Gironde viticultural region is divided into six main districts, namely, Médoc, Sauternes, Graves, Côtes, Entre-deux-Mers and Palus. Although properly belonging to the Côtes, the St Emilion district is sometimes classified separately, as indeed, having regard to the excellence and variety of its wines, it has a right to be.
Médoc.—The most important subdivision of the Gironde district is that of the Médoc. It is here that the wine which is known to us as claret is produced in greatest excellence and variety. The Médoc consists of a tongue of land to the north of Bordeaux, bounded by the Garonne and Gironde on the east, and by the sea on the west and north. It is, roughly, 59 m. long by 6 to 10 m. broad. The soil varies considerably in nature, but consists mostly of gravel, quartz, limestone and sand on the surface, and of clay and alios beneath. The principal vines grown in the Médoc are the Cabernet-Sauvignon, which is the most important, the Gros Cabernet, the Merlot, the Carmenère, the Malbec, and the Verdot. All these produce red wines. Very little white wine is made in the Médoc proper. The method of vine cultivation is peculiar and characteristic. The vines are kept very low, and as a rule only two branches or arms, which are trained at right angles to the stem, are permitted to form. This dwarf system of culture gives the Médoc vineyards at a distance the appearance of a sea of small bushes, thereby producing an effect entirely different from, for instance, that seen on the Rhine with its high basket-shaped plants. The methods of making the wine in the Médoc are of the simplest description. The vintage generally takes place towards the end of September or the beginning of October. The grapes from which the stalks are partly or wholly (and occasionally not at all) removed are crushed by treading or some other simple method, but sometimes even this is omitted, the juice being expressed by the weight of the grapes themselves, or by the pressure caused by incipient fermentation. Presses are not used in the case of red wines until after fermentation, when they are employed in order to separate the wine from the murk. As a rule the fermentation occupies from 6 to 10 days; by this time the must has practically lost the whole of its sugar, and the young wine is drawn off and filled into hogsheads. The secondary fermentation proper is generally finished at the end of about six weeks to two months, and the first racking takes place, as a rule, in February or March. Subsequent rackings are made about June and November of the same year, but in the following years, until bottling, two rackings a year suffice.
The Médoc is divided into a number of communes (such as St Julien, Margaux, Pauillac, &c.), and in these communes are situated the different vineyards from which the actual name of the wine is derived. Unlike the products of the different vineyards of most other districts, which are purchased by the merchants and vatted to supply a general wine for commerce, the yield of the principal estates of the Médoc are kept distinct and reach the consumer as the products of a particular growth and of a particular year. This practice is almost without exception resorted to with what are known as the “classed growths” and the superior “bourgeois” wines, whilst in seasons in which the wines are of good quality it is continued down to the lower grades. This classification of the Médoc growths became necessary owing to the great variety of qualities produced and the distinct characteristic excellence of the individual vintages. There are four main classes or crus (literally growths, but more correctly types or qualities), namely, the “grands crus classés” or “classed growths” and the bourgeois, artisan and peasant growths. The “classed growths,” which include all the most famous wines of the Médoc, are themselves subdivided into five sections or growths. This general classification, which was made by a conference of brokers in 1855 as a result of many years of observation dating back to the 18th century, is still very fairly descriptive of the average merit of the wines classified. The following is a list of the classed red wines of the Médoc (i.e. claret) together with the names of the communes in which they are situated.
Classed Growths of the Médoc (Claret) | |
| First Growths. | |
| Château | Lafite, Pauillac. |
| „ | Margaux, Margaux. |
| „ | Latour, Pauillac. |
| Second Growths. | |
| Château | Mouton-Rothschild, Pauillac. |
| „ | Rauzan-Ségla, Margaux. |
| „ | Rauzan-Gassies, Margaux. |
| „ | Léoville-Lascases, St Julien. |
| „ | Léoville-Poyferré, St Julien. |
| „ | Léoville-Barton, St Julien. |
| „ | Durfort-Vivens, Margaux. |
| „ | Lascombes, Margaux. |
| „ | Gruaud-Larose-Sarget, St Julien. |
| „ | Gruaud Larose, St Julien. |
| „ | Brane-Cantenac, Cantenac. |
| „ | Pichon-Longueville, Pauillac. |
| „ | Pichon-Longueville-Lalande, Pauillac. |
| „ | Ducru-Beaucaillou, St Julien. |
| Cos d'Estournel, St Estèphe. | |
| Château | Montrose, St Estèphe. |
| Third Growths | |
| Château | Kirwan, Cantenac. |
| „ | D'Issan, Cantenac. |
| „ | Lagrange, St Julien. |
| „ | Langoa, St Julien. |
| „ | Giscours, Labarde. |
| „ | Malescot, Margaux. |
| „ | Brown Cantenac, Cantenac. |
| „ | Palmer, Cantenac. |
| „ | La Lagune, Ludon. |
| „ | Desmirail, Margaux. |
| „ | Calon-Ségur, St Estèphe. |
| „ | Ferrière, Margaux. |
| „ | Becker, Margaux. |
| Fourth Growths | |
| Château | Saint-Pierre, St Julien. |
| „ | Branaire-Duluc, St Julien. |
| „ | Talbot, St Julien. |
| „ | Duhart-Mllon, Pauillac. |
| „ | Poujet, Cantenac. |
| „ | La Tour Carnet, St Laurent. |
| „ | Rochet, St Estèphe. |
| „ | Beychevelle, St Julien. |
| Le Prieuré, Cantenac. | |
| Marquis de Terme, Margaux. | |
