Saint-Julien
Maritime
The Médoc's middle commune, without a First Growth but with the highest proportion of classified estates and a style balancing perfume and power.
Overview
About Saint-Julien
Saint-Julien sits between Pauillac and Margaux and is the smallest of the four famous communes. It has no First Growth, but all eleven of its classified châteaux are Second to Fourth Growths, an unusually consistent level, and the three Léoville estates alone make up much of the appellation's fame.
The wines are often said to combine Margaux's perfume with Pauillac's structure: dark-fruited and cedary, but rounder and more approachable. It is generally regarded as the most consistent of the Médoc communes.
Saint-Julien is marked on the map.
France
Shaded: Gironde. Map units are states, provinces or départements, so a smaller place appears as the larger area that contains it.
The land
Climate & terroir
Climate
Maritime
Maritime, with the Gironde close to most vineyards. The climate is the same as its neighbours, and quality is usually steady from year to year.
Terroir & soils
What the vines grow in
Deep, well-drained gravel over clay and sand subsoils, on rises above the estuary.
Go deeper
Rules, years & producers
Saint-Julien is a communal appellation, and all eleven of its classified châteaux sit between Second and Fourth Growth in the 1855 Classification.
Second Growths
Léoville Las Cases, Léoville Poyferré, Léoville Barton, Ducru-Beaucaillou and Gruaud-Larose.
Third Growths
Lagrange and Langoa Barton.
Fourth Growths
Saint-Pierre, Talbot, Branaire-Ducru and Beychevelle.
AOC Saint-Julien
Red wine only, from the Bordeaux red varieties.
What's grown here
Grapes
Each grape's page links back here.