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bordeaux’s largest and best-known wine region. It’s located on the triangular piece of land between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gironde estuary in western France. It stretches some 50 miles, from just below the pointe de Grave at the peninsula’s northern point, to south of the village of Blanquefort just outside the northern suburbs of the city of Bordeaux. The Médoc region is broken into the Bas-Médoc (“lower” Médoc) and the Haut-Médoc (“upper” Médoc) and, in addition to the standard Bordeaux appellations, includes two area and six village appellations. The Bas-Médoc is the area from the northern point down to just above the village of Saint-Seurin-de-Cardourne north of Saint-Estèphe. This area, which has the least desirable soil, produces good-quality wines but generally not great ones. The Bas-Médoc red wines are covered under the Médoc AC, one of the two area appellations—the other being the Haut-Médoc AC, which is also only for red wines. (White wines throughout the Médoc are simply labeled Bordeaux AC or Bordeaux supérieur AC.) The Haut-Médoc area, which covers the southern portion of the Médoc, extending from just north of the city of Bordeaux to the Bas-Médoc, is where the best and most famous Médoc châteaux are located. The Haut-Médoc AC encompasses all of this area except for the six village appellations of Listrac, Margaux, Moulis, Pauillac, Saint-Estèphe, and Saint-Julien. In general, wines labeled with the individual village appellations are better than those with the “Haut-Médoc AC,” which are better than those labeled “Médoc AC.” The main red grapes used throughout the Médoc are Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot, with occasional use of Petit Verdot and minute amounts of Malbec. The Classification of 1855 , which created five tiers of crus classés (Classed Growths) for red wines, was limited to sixty-one châteaux—all in the Médoc with the exception of graves’ château Haut-Brion. Included in this classification’s top category of premier cru (first growth) are the châteaux of Lafite-Rothschild, Latour, and Mouton-Rothschild (all from Pauillac AC); Margaux from Margaux AC; and Haut-Brion from Graves. Just below the cru classé category is that of cru bourgeois, which was established for the better châteaux that didn’t qualify for the top grouping. There are numerous cru bourgeois châteaux in the Médoc, and a majority of these are in the Haut-Médoc area. The classification system provides some guidance to the quality of wines from the Médoc, although many feel it’s outdated and needs revision. See also Summary of the 1855 Classification.