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Aquitaine
A fish without scales or jaws, bled alive, simmered in its own blood mixed with red wine — lamproie à la bordelaise is the most singular dish on the Gironde table.
Traditional dish from Aquitaine.
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The sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) is not strictly a fish: it belongs to the class Agnatha, the jawless vertebrates, and its eel-like body with marbled skin bears no scales. It spends part of its life at sea, where it feeds by latching onto other fish with its oral disc lined with horny teeth, then swims up rivers to breed — a cycle that makes it an amphihaline migratory species. In France, it is found mainly in the Gironde estuary, where it has long been caught and cooked by the Bordelais.
From January to June depending on the river, and from April onwards in the Gironde itself, the lamprey swims up the Dordogne and Garonne to spawn: each female lays around 200,000 eggs there, in a nest hollowed out by the male as he anchors himself to a stone. It was during this upstream run that Gironde fishermen traditionally awaited it, using drift nets or fish traps (known locally as ‘bourgnes’) set on the riverbed.
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The consumption of lamprey in the Bordeaux region dates back to Antiquity, and over the centuries the fish is said to have retained its reputation as a choice delicacy, prized by nobles and local lords in the Middle Ages. Its best-known preparation — lamproie ‘à la bordelaise’, cooked in a red wine sauce thickened with its own blood — has established itself as one of the most recognisable recipes of Gironde gastronomy.
Since April 2023, lamprey fishing — both commercial and recreational — has been banned across the entire Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, after the administrative court in Bordeaux, petitioned by an association for the protection of aquatic environments, suspended the decree authorising it. The dish nevertheless remains on the menu in certain restaurants across the region and continues to be celebrated every year in Sainte-Terre, a village in the Libournais on the banks of the Dordogne that proclaimed itself the ‘capital of the lamprey’ in 1990 and has organised a Fête de la Lamproie in late April since 2000, featuring exhibitors, cookery workshops and meals centred around the dish.
Appearance
Pieces of dark, gelatinous flesh, coated in a thick, brown, almost black sauce made with red wine and blood
Taste
Delicate flesh with a pronounced river-fish flavour, enveloped in a rich sauce that is both robust and lightly sweet from the softened aromatics
Texture
Tender, melting flesh; unctuous sauce, thickened by the fish's blood
the lamprey is bled alive as soon as it is caught; the blood is collected, as it is used to bind the sauce.
the fish is skinned, gutted, and cut into pieces.
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Lamproie à la bordelaise is enjoyed hot, as a main course, on its slices of toasted bread soaked in sauce. It pairs with a full-bodied, tannic Bordeaux red wine — a Saint-Émilion or a Médoc are classic suggestions — whose structure matches the richness of the blood and wine sauce.
Lamproie à la bordelaise holds no official quality mark (PDO (AOP), PGI (IGP), TSG (STG) or Label Rouge): it is a traditional recipe, handed down from family to family and restaurant to restaurant, with neither product specifications nor a protected area.
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