My wife and I visited Caves de Rauzan today, a wine cooperative (Co-op) in Entre-deux-Mers, the largest wine-producing sub-region of Bordeaux. It was a cold, cloudy day, but it gave us a “backstage pass” to the inner workings of a Bordeaux wine cooperative. It was a lot of fun and very informative.
Entre-Deux-Mers Overview
Entre-Deux-Mers is a large, triangular area of land southeast of Bordeaux. It sits between the Garonne and Dordogne tidal rivers, which led people in the Middle Ages to call it “Entre-Deux-Mers,” or “between two seas.” This area is the largest wine-making sub-region in Bordeaux. It is a hilly area with about 7,000 hectares of vineyards.
There are nine Appellations d’Origine Contrôlée (AOCs) across the Entre-Deux-Mers: Entre-Deux-Mers AOC; Premières Côtes de Bordeaux AOC; Sainte-Croix-du-Mont AOC; Cadillac AOC; Loupiac AOC; St-Macaire AOC; Graves de Vayres AOC; and Sainte-Foy-Bordeaux AOC for sweet wines. The soils vary across the AOCs and include sand, clay, clay-limestone, and gravel. The area has a mild, oceanic climate.
Entre-Deux-Mers AOC
It is a bit confusing because the Entre-Deux-Mers is both the name of the general area and an AOC within it. The Entre-Deux-Mers AOC wine appellation was established in 1937 and initially allowed both dry and sweet white wines. In 1957, the rules changed so that only dry white wine could be made, labeled, and sold as Entre-Deux-Mers. The main white grapes grown here are Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Muscadelle, and a few others.
Red wines have always been produced in Entre-Deux-Mers, but until recently, they could be labeled only as Bordeaux AOC or Bordeaux Supérieur. On August 25, 2023, the Entre-Deux-Mers Rouge AOC was introduced, allowing red wines to be sold under the Entre-Deux-Mers name. Starting with the 2023 vintage, Entre-Deux-Mers winemakers chose to label their red wines Bordeaux AOC, Bordeaux Supérieur, or Entre-Deux-Mers.
The approved red grape varieties for Entre-Deux-Mers AOC wines are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec (Cot), Cabernet Franc, and Petite Verdot. Carmenère is an “accessory variety” and can make up no more than 30% of the final blend. Each wine must include at least two grape varieties.
What is a Wine Cooperative
A cooperative is an organization of individuals that come together to share costs. At the heart of all cooperatives is the “mutualization of financial means.” Uh?
Picture yourself as a winemaker. On your own, you don’t want to, or you don’t have the resources, to manage the vineyard and make and sell your own wine. So, what can you do? You team up with other local winemakers in your area, and combine your resources to share the costs of managing all the vineyards and create and staff a central location for making and selling wine. “Mutualization of financial means” is at the center of any cooperative. Almost half the wine produced in Europe is co-op wine.
Caves de Rauzan Wine Cooperative
Caves de Rauzan is a cooperative of 230 Entre-deux-Mers winemakers that have come together to share the cost of making and selling their wine. Members jointly own and manage the cooperative, ensuring every winemaker has a voice in decision-making and a share of the profits based on the quality and quantity of their contributions.
It basically works like this (the exact details may not be 100% correct): When a winemaker joins the cooperative, they pay a fee based on their size and get shares in the cooperative, which are returned to them if and when they leave. Every year at harvest time, the winemakers deliver their grapes to the cooperative’s central winemaking facility, where the GM and his team make and sell the wine.
When the wine is made and sold, each winemaker is compensated based on the quantity, the quality, and, for red wines, the “peripheral” of the grapes they delivered. 70% of the wine is sold by the cooperative as bulk wine and shipped off, for instance, to Canada, where it is bottled and sold by others. The rest is bottled on demand for supermarkets or others, or as the cooperative sees fit for B-to-C sales.
Château Canet was up for sale, so the Co-op bought it and considers it’s mascot.
Caves de Rauzan
Address: 701 Rue Vineuse, 33420 Rauzan
Phone: 05 57 84 13 22
https://www.cavederauzan.com/
To learn about our visit to a top Château in the Entre-deux-Mers region, see my post “Château de Reignac Visit.”