©2008, The Birmingham Post
Most people usually associate Graves with cemeteries, but the wine-lover will immediately recognise it as a wine region. In fact, it has nothing to do with death, but is named after the deep, well-drained gravel soils that provide ideal conditions for vine-growing.
Vineyards were established to the south-east of the city of Bordeaux as long ago as the 12th century. This is not unusual as, throughout the New World, vineyards are planted on the doorsteps of great cities. The general rule is that, as a country develops and transport links improve, the vineyards migrate and are sited in better locations.
The difference in Bordeaux is that the area immediately to the west and south of Bordeaux have pure gravel soils, but the further out one travels, the more muddled the soils become until, beyond Pessac, the gravels break up into sands, clays and limestone. The tragedy therefore is that, as the suburbs of Bordeaux have expanded, and the vineyards replaced by housing, the finest have been lost, and cannot be replanted elsewhere.
The two greatest survivors are Chateau Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion, now hemmed in by suburban villas. They were probably saved by their reputation and the relatively high price of development land. Nonetheless, these Chateaux had a claim to fame long before the marshes of the Medoc to the north were drained by the Dutch in the mid-17th century. Believe it or not, Samuel Pepys, in his famous diary, refers to "Ho Bryan, that hath a good and most particular taste".
Unlike the Medoc, the Graves is equally famous for white as well as red. The best 16 Chateaux were classified in 1959, 8 for white and 13 for red (some for both white and red). Although covering a large area, the best communes are located in the north, close to Bordeaux and, in 1987, they broke away to form a new appellation, Pessac-Leognan. Investment followed and properties which had been underperforming, have been taken to a new quality level.
While Pessac-Leognan has been an unmitigated success, the rump, the Southern Graves, has fallen into a melancholic state. Unable to charge high prices, there are insufficient funds to invest, so the producers make a wine that is light, thin and generally mediocre.
White Graves almost pre-dates Liebfraumilch in terms of popularity. Produced in cement tanks, it could be anything from dry to medium-sweet, and required a large dose of sulphur to keep it stable. The wine was drab and dull, but part of the problem was uncontrolled fermentation temperatures.
One producer, Andre Lurton, had seen soldiers wrapping their flasks in damp cloths to keep them cool, so he used the idea to apply wet blankets to the outside of his fermentation tanks. The result was to preserve the freshness of the fruit, and this method has now become the norm, albeit using temperature controlled stainless-steel tanks.
White Graves and Pessac-Legman is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. Without oak, the former gives vibrant nettle characters, whereby the latter tames the worse vegetal excesses by adding wax and citrus.
The leading properties, though, have taken this a stage a further. The juice is now fermented in barrel and aged on its lees, changing the character to a creamy mouth filling texture, with back notes of vanilla and toast. These wines can mature and develop with considerable grace, rivalling the best in Burgundy.
The red wines are generally a mix of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in equal proportions, almost a halfway-house between the Left and Right Banks. As a generality, they tend to be more loose-knit and less austere than the Medoc, lacking the weight and lushness of St. Emilio.
At a recent Decanter Fine Wine Encounter, I visited a number of leading producers, and my highlights were as follows: