Bordeaux along with Burgundy and the Loire Valley is one of the three great wine growing regions of France. When people talk about Bordeaux wine they are usually referring to red wines but there are also some great whites from this region. Bordeaux reds are made from a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, petit verdot and malbec. Bordeaux whites are typically made from sauvignon blanc, semillon and muscadelle.
Bordeaux on the Atlantic coast naturally divides into two regions, on the south-west of the Gironde river lies the left bank, on the north-east side lies the right bank.
The left bank further divides into two districts, Medoc and Graves. Most of Bordeaux classic reds comes from Medoc (and it sub-district Haut-Medoc), many of Bordeaux's great whites come from Graves (and some of its great white dessert wines come from Sauternes a sub-district of Graves). Names of chateaus in Medoc you may have heard include Lafite-Rothschild, Latour, Haut-Brion and Mouton-Rothschild.
The right bank has not as historic a reputation but still has some great wines, the two main districts are St-Emilion and Pomerol. The geography and associated wines of the region are much more complicated than this brief introduction, but I don't want to bore you.
The left bank reds are in general much more dominated by cabernet sauvignon so they may be a little tannic for some people. The right bank reds tend to be dominated by the flavours of merlot so in many respects they are more approachable for the average person like me or you!
For more information ...
burgundy
meritage
http://www.bordeaux.com/home.html
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