Scattered around the region close to, but not quite included in, the lofty well known AC's are some brilliant under the radar AC's. These are a great hunting ground for bargains but one does have to be careful here & not assume everything is decent just because it's part of the Bordeaux region as a whole. I've mentioned regions like Lalande de Pomerol & the St Emilion satellites in other articles. I really love visiting estates here (especially Chateau Perron) as it's a totally different working environment, not hugely set up for tourists & the swagger of merchant power brokers arriving to do a deal worth millions. You are far more likely to get a family welcome and to sit down and share a huge dish of Tartiflete with the pickers in the winery with jugs of wine direct from the vat. When I take restaurant clients to visit Bordeaux to see where the wines I sell them are born, I often find that a visit of this nature remains their most memorable moment. Eventhough I will have taken them to a mighty towering Medocain castle for a swish tasting the previous day! Sadly I feel that as more & more of Bordeaux is bought up by huge corporations, even in the lesser AC's, there will be less small family run estates to have these special moments with, where the guy who made the vintages in the ‘50's & ‘60's still lives at the house, while the son or daughter makes & sells the current vintage.

On the left bank, apart from the Haut Medoc & Medoc AC wines it's worth seeking out wines that come from Moulis en Medoc (Chateau Poujeaux, Chateau Maucaillou, Chateau Chasse Spleen all £20+ these days) Listrac (Chateau Clarke, Chateau Ducluzeau, Forcas Hosten £15-£20). I do like these wines & think they offer value for money but they are not really small & family run any more having been bought by companies like Hermes or larger Chateau. However, on the right bank in Fronsac, near Libourne or Castillon, or near St Emilion you are more likely to find a family still living at the Chateau.

In Fronsac I would recommend trying Chateau Dalem (£15-20), Chateau La Vieille Cure (£18) & in the Cote de Castillon my favourite is Chateau D'Aiguilhe (£20) which is owned by Stefan Von Neipperg from Clos to L'Oratoire in St Emilion. To get good Bordeaux at around the £10 price you really have to go AC's like Cotes de Bourg, on the opposite side of the Gironde to the Medoc or east of the city to the huge Entre Deux Mers 'between the rivers' AC. Here, the trade can pay €3-5 for the wine which results in wines around £10-£12 once it's imported into the UK & all the various taxes added (at time of writing £2.23 Duty + 20% VAT). One Chateau I would highly recommend from this region is Chateau Argadens (both the red & white) whose owners are the Sichel family who I work closely with on Chateau Angludet in Margaux. Though the terroir is not as blessed as in Margaux, the Sichels, with their extensive know how, have made a brilliant entry level Bordeaux here that tasted blind often gets mistaken for wine sold for a lot more in another AC. When you find a winner like this it's good to stick with it & I feel good taking it into restaurant client tastings that it's going to deliver a relative wow factor on a reasonable budget. In these challenging times pubs & restaurants are looking for quality further down the price scale. That's my job I guess, whether it be for you reading this or a gastropub in Camden!