Bordeaux

Bordeaux is more than a wine region; it is a civilisation of terroir. Vineyards, chateaux, riverfront architecture and centuries of trade have created one of the world's great landscapes of taste.

Bordeaux grew rich on wine and Atlantic trade, and in the eighteenth century built itself in pale limestone along a crescent of the Garonne — the Port of the Moon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Place de la Bourse and its water mirror, the Grand Théâtre and the Cité du Vin define the restored riverfront.

The vineyards begin at the city limits. The Médoc runs north along the Gironde estuary, past Margaux and Pauillac; the Graves and Sauternes lie to the south; Saint-Émilion and Pomerol stand on the Right Bank. The Arcachon Bay, with its oysters and the Dune du Pilat, is about an hour to the west.

Spring brings en primeur week in April, when the trade comes to taste the latest vintage, and long mild days among the vines, and estates open their doors more readily than at harvest. Summer is warm, with the Bordeaux Wine Festival in June in alternate years and the Marathon du Médoc through the châteaux in September.

September and October are harvest season, the busiest and most atmospheric time in the vineyards, when many estates focus on picking and visits need planning. Winter is mild and damp, quieter in the châteaux but good for the city, its restaurants and the oyster beds of Arcachon. December brings a Christmas market to the old town.

The most distinctive stay around Bordeaux is in the vineyards rather than the city. Les Sources de Caudalie stands among the vines of Château Smith Haut Lafitte at Martillac, a short drive south of the centre in the Pessac-Léognan appellation, with its own vinotherapy spa, a gastronomic restaurant and rooms built in the style of local farmhouses and tobacco barns.

It makes a natural base for visits to the Graves and Sauternes, and an easy one for the Médoc and Saint-Émilion, while the old city and the Cité du Vin lie twenty minutes away. LVXVRY advises on the balance between city and vineyard, arranges château visits around the stay, and books every hotel directly at the official hotel rate.