{"id":4946,"date":"2023-12-15T17:00:36","date_gmt":"2023-12-16T01:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/?p=4946"},"modified":"2024-02-12T11:34:04","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T19:34:04","slug":"graves-the-oldest-and-most-historic-wine-of-bordeaux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/graves-the-oldest-and-most-historic-wine-of-bordeaux\/","title":{"rendered":"Graves: The Oldest and Most Historic Wine of Bordeaux"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Red-Wine-Grapes.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4343\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Red-Wine-Grapes-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Red Wine Grapes\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Red-Wine-Grapes-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Red-Wine-Grapes-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a>Graves is the oldest and most historic of all the Bordeaux communes; yet, it\u2019s superlative wines remain the least known among American oenophiles. Before Latour, Lafite, Margaux, and the rest of the well-known names of the M\u00e9doc existed or had even seen a cultivated vine, there was Graves. In fact, Graves has been the home of cultivated vines since as early as the 1<sup>st<\/sup> century AD, due at least in part to the Romans\u2019 inability to grow other crops in the graveled soil from which the name Graves is derived. The stone and gravel deposits are vestiges of the last Ice Age, a bane to most farmers but a boon to grape growers, whose vines struggle deep into the thin porous soil to draw life and subtle complex flavors from the nutrients below.<\/p>\n<p>The wines of Graves also appear to be the first Bordeaux wines to be exported, with archeological evidence that Roman garrisons in Britain were the happy recipients of Bordeaux\u2019s quintessential wines. And by the early 12<sup>th<\/sup> century, Graves was the most sought after wine in England and beyond for its quality as well as its proximity to the city and port of Bordeaux itself, which lay just a few kilometers from Graves.<\/p>\n<p>Today, the northern section of Graves called Pessac L\u00e9ognon must battle the urban sprawl that has broken out of the confines of the city of Bordeaux and spread to the nearby suburbs of Talence and Pessac. A little south of these towns lies the pastoral heart of Graves, a pretty, rural country where vineyards mingle with pastures and pine forests. Here, life remains wedded to the land and the joys of the vine.<\/p>\n<p>Graves is rightly famous for both its red and white wines. At their best, the red wines of Graves are unsurpassed for their aromatic beauty as well as their smooth, rich flavors. Earthy, fragrant aromas that resemble cedar, a classic cigar box scent, black currant, and tobacco emanate from red Graves and form a bouquet that is frequently described as enchanting and profound. The legendary Chateau Haut-Brion, Thomas Jefferson\u2019s favorite red wine, remains the most illustrious of the appellation\u2019s wines. Moreover, fine red Graves is often the supplest of Bordeaux reds on the palate. Its <em>c\u00e9page<\/em> is an artful blend, comprised almost exclusively of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc.<\/p>\n<p>White Graves is a dry, quite aromatic wine that emits great freshness along with substantial flavor. Perhaps the greatest event in Graves in the last quarter century has been the revolution that has taken hold among the producers of white Graves. Once an obscure and expensive proposition that did not always travel well, contemporary white Graves has taken on vigor, personality and even an exotic edge that underscores the physiological ripeness that was often absent in white Graves in years past. The primary white Bordeaux varietals are Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. The finest white Graves rival the greatest white wines of France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Graves is the oldest and most historic of all the Bordeaux communes; yet, it\u2019s superlative wines remain the least known among American oenophiles. Before Latour, Lafite, Margaux, and the rest of the well-known names of the M\u00e9doc existed or had even seen a cultivated vine, there was Graves. In fact, Graves has been the home [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[7,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Graves: The Oldest and Most Historic Wine of Bordeaux | Wine Blog from The International Wine of the Month Club<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Graves is the oldest and most historic of all the Bordeaux communes; yet, it\u2019s superlative wines remain the least known among Americans.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/graves-the-oldest-and-most-historic-wine-of-bordeaux\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Graves: The Oldest and Most Historic Wine of Bordeaux | Wine Blog from The International Wine of the Month Club\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Graves is the oldest and most historic of all the Bordeaux communes; yet, it\u2019s superlative wines remain the least known among Americans.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/graves-the-oldest-and-most-historic-wine-of-bordeaux\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Wine Blog from The International Wine of the Month Club\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WineMonthClub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-16T01:00:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-12T19:34:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Red-Wine-Grapes-225x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Don Lahey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@WineMonthClub\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@WineMonthClub\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Don Lahey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Graves: The Oldest and Most Historic Wine of Bordeaux | Wine Blog from The International Wine of the Month Club","description":"Graves is the oldest and most historic of all the Bordeaux communes; yet, it\u2019s superlative wines remain the least known among Americans.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/graves-the-oldest-and-most-historic-wine-of-bordeaux\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Graves: The Oldest and Most Historic Wine of Bordeaux | Wine Blog from The International Wine of the Month Club","og_description":"Graves is the oldest and most historic of all the Bordeaux communes; yet, it\u2019s superlative wines remain the least known among Americans.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/graves-the-oldest-and-most-historic-wine-of-bordeaux\/","og_site_name":"Wine Blog from The International Wine of the Month Club","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WineMonthClub","article_published_time":"2023-12-16T01:00:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-02-12T19:34:04+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Red-Wine-Grapes-225x300.jpg"}],"author":"Don Lahey","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@WineMonthClub","twitter_site":"@WineMonthClub","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Don Lahey","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/graves-the-oldest-and-most-historic-wine-of-bordeaux\/","url":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/graves-the-oldest-and-most-historic-wine-of-bordeaux\/","name":"Graves: The Oldest and Most Historic Wine of Bordeaux | Wine Blog from The International Wine of the Month Club","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-12-16T01:00:36+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-12T19:34:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/252df0a64b62c4bf914deff2def08ccc"},"description":"Graves is the oldest and most historic of all the Bordeaux communes; yet, it\u2019s superlative wines remain the least known among Americans.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/graves-the-oldest-and-most-historic-wine-of-bordeaux\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/graves-the-oldest-and-most-historic-wine-of-bordeaux\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/graves-the-oldest-and-most-historic-wine-of-bordeaux\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Wine Blog Home","item":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Interesting Wine Info","item":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/category\/interesting-wine-info\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Graves: The Oldest and Most Historic Wine of Bordeaux"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/","name":"Wine Blog from The International Wine of the Month Club","description":"A wine blog written by the experts from The International Wine of the Month Club","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/252df0a64b62c4bf914deff2def08ccc","name":"Don Lahey","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dafbad9ba70ee4ae413f7973d30430ff?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dafbad9ba70ee4ae413f7973d30430ff?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Don Lahey"},"description":"Don Lahey's career in the wine industry spans over 30 years as an importer, author, consultant, and educator. He leads the tasting panel that selects our wines each month.","url":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/author\/donlahey\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4946"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4947,"href":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4946\/revisions\/4947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winemonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}