Saint-Julien AOC

One of the six famous communes (along with Listrac-Médoc, Margaux, Moulis, Pauillac and Saint-Estèphe) within the French Haut-Médoc area that are appellations in their own right and are allowed to use the commune name on the bottle label. The communal appellation also includes the neighbouring commune of Beychevelle. The vineyards cover around 900 hectares of vines in an almost square shape. A special feature is that there is a 16-hectare enclave in the municipality whose wines are allowed to bear the Pauillac designation of origin. It is also worth mentioning that historically, the famous Château Latour (Pauillac) would actually belong to Saint-Julien. The soils consist of a thin layer of gravel with sandy loess on an iron-rich subsoil with marl and gravel.

Here are eleven of the 61 châteaux (comprising 85% of the commune's surface area) that were included in the list of the most expensive and best quality wines in the famous Bordeaux classification of 1855, which is still significant today. These are the five Deuxièmes (2nd rank) Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, Château Gruaud-Larose, Château Léoville-Barton, Château Léoville-Las-Cases and Château Léoville-Poyferré, the two Troisièmes (3rd rank) Château Lagrange and Château Lagrange. Château Lagrange and Château Langoa-Barton, as well as the four Quatrièmes (4th rank) Château Beychevelle, Château Branaire-Ducru, Château Saint-Pierre and Château Talbot (see a list of all 61 wine estates under Médoc). Château Léoville-Las-Cases is one of the "super seconds" that, according to experts, would easily make the Premier Cru Classé in a (theoretically) new classification. There are also Cru Bourgeois estates such as Château Bel-Air, Château du Glana and Château Gloria, as well as many classified as Cru Artisan. The tannic, long-lived reds are between those from Margaux (in terms of finesse) and Pauillac (in terms of fullness) in style; they are consistently high quality throughout the range.

Map: By Domenico-de-ga from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Modifications from the original by Norbert F. J. Tischelmayer 2017