- MEDOC AREA -
The Medoc district of Bordeaux, amid its coastal lagoons, sand dunes and pine forests, is home to four of the world's most prestigious wine villages: Pauillac, Margaux, Saint-Estephe and Saint-Julien. The chateaux located in these villages – among them Margaux, Mouton, Lafite and Latour – produce some of the world's most expensive wines.
Wedged between the Atlantic coastline and the broad Gironde estuary, the Medoc is effectively a peninsula (presqu'île in French). It extends 50 miles (80km) north-westwards from city of Bordeaux to the Pointe de Grave headland, whose sandy, gravelly terrain hints at what lies beneath the Medoc vineyards, and makes the area so well suited for viticulture.