Bordeaux wine can "see the river" from their vineyards. The majority of land facing riverward is occupied by classified estates. Red Bordeaux is generally made from a blend of grapes. Permitted grapes are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec and rarely Carménère. Today Carménère is rarely used, with Château Clerc Milon, a fifth growth Bordeaux, being one of the few to still retain Carménère vines. As a very broad generalisation, Cabernet Sauvignon (Bordeaux's second-most planted grape variety) dominates the blend in red wines produced in the Médoc and the rest of the left bank of the Gironde estuary. Typical top-quality
Bordeaux wine regions the Médoc, with entire slopes and plateaus belonging to a single estate. The area of Pauillac contains three of the five first growth estates of Bordeaux. These are Château Lafite-Rothschild, Château Latour and Château Mouton Rothschild. It also includes 15 other classed growths. Situated on two plateaus between Pauillac and Margaux, the wine region of St-Julien has the smallest wine production of the four major regions in the Médoc. The region is divided into essentially two areas - the riverside estates around the village of St.Julien and the southern estates around the village of Beychevelle where the areas Cru Bourgeois