Château d'Arcins - Haut-Médoc | French Red Wine

Found on the Left Bank of the Gironde estuary, in the Bordeaux wine region in Southwestern France, Haut-Médoc is an Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) for wine.

Interestingly enough, it was not used for winemaking originally. The vast areas of salt marsh were mainly used for animal grazing until the 17th century, when Dutch merchants created a drainage that converted the marshes into usable vineyard. This ambitious undertaking was done mainly to give the Portugese and Graves wines competition in the British wine market. The wine regions of Saint-Julien, Pauillac, Margaux, and Saint-Estephe took shape in Bordeaux before long, and by the 19th century, Haut-Médoc became one of the most prosperous wine regions in France.