Although winemaking existed on the right bank of the Dordogne River long before the Médoc was drained – Château Ausone’s name is an homage to Ausonius, a 4th century Roman poet who may (or may not) have planted his vines at the site of the current estate – the wines of the Right Bank, particularly St-Émilion AOP and Pomerol AOP, did not reach the commercial level of the Médoc wines until the post-war modern era. These two communes produce red wine blends dominated by Merlot and, to a lesser extent, Cabernet Franc. Cabernet Sauvignon is rarely a major component, with the notable exception of Château Figeac in St-Émilion. St-Émilion contains a diversity of soils broadly categorized into two types: the côtes and graves. As a simplification, the hillside côtes are steep limestone slopes and graves is a gravelly limestone plateau resembling soils of the Médoc.
As the courtiers of Bordeaux seldom shipped the wines of the Right Bank overseas in the 19th century, they did not include the region’s wines in the 1855 Classification. However, St-Émilion created its own three-tier ranking of châteaux in 1954 (published in 1955) with revisions made in 1969, 1985, 1996, 2006, and 2012. Unlike the Médoc Classification, the St-Émilion Classification intended revisions every decade and based such changes in stature on a peer-reviewed tasting of the wines, but the continued integrity of the system appeared fragile when legal challenges from a group of demoted châteaux scuttled the 2006 revisions. The matter percolated in the French courts for several years, resulting in a 2009 compromise that allowed promoted châteaux to retain their new status while ignoring any demotions. With the announcement of a new and rather generous classification in September 2012—conducted by an outside source, the INAO, rather than the local producers‘ syndicate—the producers of St-Émilion hope to leave the tarnishing episode behind.
The misleading St-Émilion Grand Cru AOP is an appellation, rather than a classificaiton. Wines labeled St-Émilion Grand Cru are required to show an additional + 0.5% alcohol and must undergo a longer élevage than wines simply labeled St-Émilion AOP. All Grand Cru Classé wines must meet the requirements of the St-Émilion Grand Cru AOP.
Compared to St-Émilion, Pomerol is a tiny AOP, measuring just five square miles and 1,957 acres of vineyards. The soil of Pomerol is dominated by sand, clay and gravel, with a subsoil of iron pan and rich clay (crasse de fer). Merlot is particularly successful in Pomerol’s clay-based soils, as evidenced by the wines of Château Pétrus, where the subsoil clay rises very close to the surface. Pétrus and the other great wines of this small commune have a reputation for being hedonistic, plump, and opulent. Approachable sooner than their counterparts in the Médoc, the wines are generally comprised of 70-80% Merlot and 20-25% Cabernet Franc, known as Bouchet in Pomerol. There is no classification in Pomerol; regardless, the best properties—Château Pétrus, Vieux-Château-Certan, Château Lafleur, Château Le Pin, and Château Trotanoy—can achieve extravagant prices on par with premier cru Médoc wines.
There are four satellite appellations for St-Émilion: Lussac, St-Georges, Montagne, and Puisseguin. Pomerol’s neighboring red wine districts include Lalande-de-Pomerol AOP, which contains the communes of Lalande-de-Pomerol and Néac, Fronsac AOP, and Canon-Fronsac AOP.