Wine

Bordeaux is in South-West France in the newly-created administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaire after Aquitaine (tout court) was combined with Poitou-Charentes and Limousin in 2016. It has the Dordogne region, popular with expatriate Brits with its rolling hills, truffles and foie gras to the north, and the more industrial area of Toulouse famous for its classic French dishes of cassoulet, confit de canard, culture, art and beautiful architechture to the south. Once a year, the great and the good (although after "me too" campaign and the French version "balance ton porc" (tell on our pig), there may be a few missing regulars going forward) head down to Cannes on the Côte D'Azur for the eponymous film festival. 

It is the most famous wine-producing region in the world, producing around 900 million bottles and over 10,000 different wines each vintage, with a value in excess of Euros 2bn, and is a magnet for wine professionals and wine tourists throughout the world.

The wine-producing areas of Bordeaux are divided up into appellations, essentially a set of criteria that must apply to all wine-making activities in that area if the appellation is to be used on the bottle, stipulating things like the type of grape varietals permitted to be grown (the Graves, where Château Mitaud is located, is famous for all three main types of wine, reds dry whites and sweet whites, while Pauillac which is home to three out of the five First Growths in the 1855 classification, Château Latour, Château Lafite and Château Mouton Rothschild (which was promoted from a second growth in 1973) is basically all red).

The most famous of these appellations Margaux (Château Margaux is the only First Growth with the same name as the appellation) Pauillac, St. Estephe, St. Julien, on the left bank and Pomerol and St. Emilion on the right bank will be carved in the memories of wine lovers the world over. The Graves region, as it was previously known, was split into two-appellations, namely Pessac Leognan (where all the classified growths are located, including the only First Growth, Haut Brion) and the more rural and less developed Graves (where Château Mitaud is located) in 1987.