Bordelaise Sauce A classic French sauce named for the great wine area of Bordeaux. The sauce is made with dry red wine, bone marrow, shallots and a rich brown sauce called demi-glace. Sauce marchand de vins ("wine-merchant's sauce") is a similar designation. New Orleans sauce BordelaiseA Bordelaise sauce in traditional New Orleans cooking is different from the French classical version. The basic connotation is garlic, not red wine and bone marrow. One version is not too distant from the French version and can be thought of as a marchand d'vin (red wine and demi-glace) with the addition of garlic (rather than shallots). A second version is what most New Orleanians think of as Bordelaise and consists of butter, olive oil, chopped green onion (traditionally called 'shallots' in New Orleans), parsley, and garlic. This combination is the foundation of the classic Escargot Bordelaise--a dish that was available in New Orleans restaurants early in the twentieth century. The association of Bordelaise with garlic may have begun with this dish and then shifted to the demi-glace version. A 1904 Creolé recipe calls for garlic and parsley in addition to green onions, red wine, beef marrow, and "Spanish Sauce" (Espagnole sauce). Notes^ Soniat, Leon E. La Bouche Creole, p.58. Pelican Publishing, 1983.^ Eustis, Celestine. Cooking in Old Creole Days, p. 35. R.H. Russell, 1904.