Bordeaux’s wine industry has historically adapted to consumer habits. In the 1970s the region leaned towards white, but by the 2000s was famed for powerful oak-aged reds.
Now it’s turning to a much older form of red with a name familiar to anglophones: claret. With origins in the 12th century, when it was first shipped to Britain, claret was soon our favoured wine, an unofficial byword for bordeaux red, which in recent decades has become increasingly full-bodied.
The Bordeaux protected designation of origin has now formally validated bordeaux claret, linking it to the existing Bordeaux appellation. Yet the bottles, available from the 2025 vintage, will differ from what many in Britain consider claret – lighter, less tannic and lower in alcohol.
Bordeaux has been greatly affected by climate breakdown. Some impacts have been a “positive challenge”, said Stéphanie Sinoquet, the managing director of the Bordeaux growers’ association, with producers turning to untraditional, heat-resistant grape varieties. Warmer conditions were allowing grapes to reach a “better and more consistent ripeness”.
Consequently, ever-rising alcohol levels were of concern – 15% is now common. For Jean-Raymond Clarenc, the director of the Bordeaux branch of the Grands Chais de France, the new classification is a “strategic response to these environmental shifts.
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