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CLARET
C L A R E T is the red wine of Bordeaux. Many other wines are
made in other parts of the world to resemble Claret; they are sold
as Claret, but by honest dealers they have a qualifying description of
origin, such as Australian Claret, etc.
A l l Claret is more or less alike in c o l ou r ; it should be ruby red,
brilliant red, never black or pink, but it differs very much in bouquet
and flavour according to the species of grapes from which it is made,
the soil and aspect of the vineyard where the grapes were grown, the
state of the grapes and the way in which they were pressed at the
vintage time and the length of time it has been kept.
The reason all grapes for the making of wine are not alike is
because each specie must be suited to the soil and it is the rivers
that make the soil so different. There is the river Garonne which
conies from the Pyrenees in the South-east, and the river Do r dogne
which comes from the North-east. They both meet some little way
below Bordeaux and flow together towards the Bay of Biscay as one
big river known as the Gironde. The best Clarets come from the
Medoc, that is the vineyards on the left bank of the Gi r onde ; the
Graves vineyards on the left bank of the Garonne; and the St.
Emilion and Pomerol vineyards on the right bank of the Dorgodne.
There are large quantities of white wines made in the Graves
districts, but even larger quantities of red wines, that is to say
of Claret. There are many vineyards between the Garonne and the
Dordogne, and there are also very large vineyards on the right
bank of the Gironde, facing the Me d o c ; they are known by different
names, Entre-deux-Mers, Blaye, etc., but they can be roughly divided
into Cotes or hillside vineyards and Palus, or the wine from the
lowlands vineyards, close to the Dordogne, Garonne, and Gironde,
or the island vineyards in the middle of the broad Gironde.
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