Sauternes and Barsac, one of two subregions within the encompassing wine region of Graves, resides on the Left Bank of the Gironde River, south of the city of Bordeaux. The subregion is approximately 4,500 acres, producing 4.5 million bottles, on average, yearly. Sauternes and Barsac is famous internationally for its desert wines, which are powerful, yet delicate sweet white wines.
The diversity of gravelly soil in the Sauternes and Barsac subregion, which carries in it varying degrees of limestone and clay, results in highly personalized wine from chateau to chateau. Each chateau has developed its own unique way of creating the sweet wine, dependent on their respective soils. The common ingredient, however, is “noble rot”, a fungus which is used as the primary sweetening agent of the grapes. The grapes used for producing the sweet white wines of Sauternes and Barsac are Sauvignon, Sémillon, and Muscadelle.
Sauternes and Barsac Chateaux
- Chateau Climens
- Chateau Coutet
- Chateau d’Yquem
- Chateau Rieussec
- Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte