My experts call them petit Bordeaux. Most of their house wines would be too expensive to be American house wines because of shipping costs and taxes. There are subregions or communes within each of these districts such as Pauillac, St.-Julien and others. Outside those five main districts, wines made in the general Bordeaux area are simply labeled Bordeaux or Bordeaux Superieur, the latter having a slightly higher alcohol content. These are usually less expensive and not as well made as those from the main districts, but the French consume a lot of these wines.
Most winemakers depend on a combination of the first three to make their reds.
These are not the great wines of France but the kind of simple wines French folks drink every day. This was a young, lush cabernet with lots of red fruit and some tea leaf tastes at the finish. Tannins are the chemicals in grapes that give wine structure. When too strong in young wines, tannins make your mouth pucker and dry out. This wine was deemed a good value for its price.