Medoc
The area covers approximately 5,700 hectares of declared vineyards, constituting 34.5% of the Médoc total, annually producing on average 300,000 hectolitres of wine.
The soils are Garonne gravel, Pyrenees gravel and clayey limestone with extreme variation in character. There are frequent areas of heavy, clay-rich, moisture-retentive soils better suited for cultivation of the Merlot grape than Cabernet Sauvignon, and vineyards are less densely packed than further south, intermingled with other forms of agriculture.