Bordeaux Wines what does it all really mean?

Bordeaux, in the southwest of France, needs little introduction as one of the world's most famous, prestigious and prolific wine regions. Its three trump cards are diversity, quality and quantity. The majority of Bordeaux wines (nearly 90 percent of production volume) are the dry, medium and full-bodied red Bordeaux Blends that established its reputation. The finest (and most expensive) of these come from the great Chateaux of the Haut-Medoc and the Right Bank appellations Saint-Emilion and Pomerol. The legendary reds are complemented by high-quality white wines, both dry styles and the sweet, botrytized nectars of Sauternes. In order to understand the labels is the tricky part as this region rarely informs the buyer on the grapes, let alone what Cru classe means. So here is a simple (ish) breakdown on this area. Right bank (right side of the river) are Merlot dominated wines normally with Cabernet franc or Cabernet sauvignon there are 3 main wine areas here these are Saint-Emilion, Fonsac and Pomerol, yes there is more, but these are the ones we commonly find in the UK. If you don’t see these 3 regions its more than likely a Cabernet Sauvignon dominated wine (Left bank) like Margaux, Puillac, Saint Estephe, Saint Julien, Medoc and Haut Medoc. Both of these right and left banks can be aged 10 years plus on good vintages these also warrant the higher prices and some of these wines have over 5 different grape varieties in there bottles. There is also the Cotes De Bordeaux and Bordeaux regions which are the cheaper wines not designed to be drunk over 10 years old theses are normally Cabernet Sauvignon dominated but very often we see many merlot dominated bottles.
The biggest confusion on the label is Saint-Emilion, the wines you want are the ones down on the river so if you see lussac Saint-Emilion then we have the best value/priced wines as they are up in the hills, it’s the grand cru wines that have the better reputation, but these ones are not the best, the grand cru classe range is the level up, but the words premier grand cru classe are needed to determine a top vineyard, so grand Cru is really a wine above a basic Saint-Emilion. Over all if you want a very special wine then it’s the classification system of the cru classe that will give you something amazing, watch out on the price.