Bordeaux is the cradle of French wine: its 2000-year history of winemaking, its unmistakable Bordeaux red and enchanting Châteaux give it an aura of majesty. The variety of Bordeaux wines is wide and offers different but recognisable flavours. The advent of wine-growing in the area is owed to the Romans; however, the birth of the Bordeaux vineyard dates back to the 12th century, sanctioned by the marriage between King Henry Plantagenet of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine, which started the wine trade from Aquitaine to England. At the end of English rule in 1500, trade with London came to a halt, but a flourishing trade with Holland began. With the advent of the 18th century, the purchase of wine estates by the political class gave a new impetus to the production of Bordeaux wines with the emergence of wine ageing in bottles. The Napoleonic period restored trade with the English and there was the first classification of the vineyards of Sauternes-Barsac and Médoc-Graves, with the definition of ' cru classé' and the meaning of 'château'. Undisputed masters are the Bordeaux reds made from the territory's 3 emblematic grapes: cabernet, sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc. xtraWine devotes a large section to Bordeaux red wines, proposing bottles from the best vintages of 2014 and 2015 that received major awards from Hachette. All the Bordeaux wines recommended by xtraWine are distinguished by their characteristic warm, intense and enveloping flavour, produced by major wineries such as: Château Guiraud, Château d'Yquem, Château Du Retout, Château Mont-Perat, Dourthe, Kressmann and Reignac.