The original fine-wine country of Bordeaux. The medieval claret that supplied England came first from these gravels at the city's gates, and it was here, in the 1660s, that Arnaud de Pontac made Haut-Brion the first wine sold under its own estate name — the invention of the château brand itself.
The wine keeps a signature no blind taster forgets: a warm smokiness, as if the gravel itself were remembered, over Cabernet-Merlot fruit that drapes more softly than the Médoc's. Since 1987 the historic northern heart, Pessac-Léognan, has its own appellation, red and white alike among Bordeaux's finest.