The appellation covers about 7.5 percent of the Médoc and is worked by 69 estates and one cooperative cellar. Beside the five classified growths, the appellation counts crus bourgeois, crus artisans and some thirty reputed unclassified wines. The soils are gravel carried by the Garonne millions of years ago, mixed with sandy clay, over a subsoil of marine limestone.

The blends lean on Cabernet Sauvignon, about half the vineyard, with Merlot at 40 percent, Cabernet Franc at 7 and Petit Verdot at 3, a larger share of Merlot than the 60 percent and more of Cabernet Sauvignon of Saint-Julien. The Bordeaux wine council describes the wines as powerful and elegant, with fine tannins and a long life ahead, and notes of blackcurrant, blackberry, violet, mocha and spices. They are wines for the cellar, and they reward the wait.

Pauillac lies directly to the south, on the same estuary; Saint-Julien and Margaux follow further down the road to Bordeaux.

The wines above are every Saint-Estèphe in the cellar. See also Pessac-Léognan or the full range of Bordeaux wines.