Saint-Émilion wine tour with a private chauffeur

Saint-Émilion lies on the right bank of the Dordogne, some forty kilometres east of Bordeaux. The vineyard wraps around a medieval village built in limestone, whose underground quarries long served both as building material and as cellars. Within a compact area, three main soil types follow one another: the limestone plateau, the surrounding clay-limestone slopes, and the sandier, more gravelly foot of the slope towards Pomerol.

Merlot dominates the blend, giving supple, generous wines, rounded out by Cabernet Franc — known here as Bouchet — for freshness and tannic structure. This mosaic of terroirs over just a few kilometres explains the range of styles, from one estate to the next and sometimes from one plot to another.

The jurisdiction of Saint-Émilion was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999, the first wine region recognised for its cultural landscape. The appellation also has a classification of its own, revised roughly every ten years — a Bordeaux peculiarity that keeps the hierarchy moving rather than fixed.