The appellation was recognised on 9 September 1987 after a campaign led by André Lurton, to set apart the historic heart of the Graves from the wider region. It covers 1,880 hectares in ten communes, Pessac, Léognan, Mérignac, Talence, Gradignan, Canéjan, Villenave-d'Ornon, Cadaujac, Martillac and Saint-Médard-d'Eyrans, worked by 56 estates. All 14 classified growths of the Graves lie within it, and Château Haut-Brion is also a first growth of the 1855 classification, the only red wine from outside the Médoc in that list.

The soil is the gravel that gives the Graves its name, the grabas de Bourdeus: river pebbles, fine gravel, flint and sand over clay and limestone, which drain fast and warm quickly. Reds are 86 percent of production, blended from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot with Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Carménère; the Bordeaux wine council describes them as elegant, balanced between structure and fruit, with silky tannins and a mineral edge. The dry whites, from Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris, Sémillon and Muscadelle, are among the most serious of Bordeaux, complex, lively and built to age.

The wines above are every Pessac-Léognan in the cellar, red and white. See also Sauternes, the sweet side of the Graves, the Médoc communes of Margaux and Pauillac, or the full range of Bordeaux wines.