A few weeks ago, the Alliance des Crus Bourgeois du Médoc announced that 271 châteaux had made it into the official selection for the 2015 vintage.
Around 32 million bottles of wine are expected to carry the Cru Bourgeois label. Most estates selected are AOC Medoc and Haut-Médoc properties, but there are also several properties from Pauillac, Margaux and St Estephe, as well as Listrac-Médoc and Moulis.
The volume of Crus Bourgeois du Médoc on sale is up from 30 million bottles for the 2014 vintage and just 20 million for the cooler, wet 2013 harvest, and compares with 29 million bottles for 2012 and 28 million for 2011.
The full list of the 2015 Official Selection of the Crus Bourgeois du Médoc is available here.
For earlier selections, see:
The 278 Crus Bourgeois du Medoc of the 2014 Vintage Announced, France
The 251 Crus Bourgeois du Médoc of the 2013 Vintage Announced, France
The 267 Crus Bourgeois du Médoc of the 2012 Vintage Announced, France
The 256 Crus Bourgeois du Médoc of the 2011 Vintage Announced, France
The 260 Crus Bourgeois du Médoc of the 2010 Vintage, France
The Cru Bourgeois Classification of 1932
From 1932 to the end of the 1900s, the Cru Bourgeois du Médoc system was a classification system set in stone. The first Cru Bourgeois list was drawn up by the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce and Chamber of Agriculture in 1932, selecting 444 estates from the Médoc for the classification. These were wines that were not included in the 1855 Classification of Crus Classes, but still of high quality.
Cru Bourgeois du Médoc Today: A Label Awarded Annually
Today, the Cru Bourgeois du Médoc is a wine label that is awarded annually, on the basis of an assessment of both production methods and the wine. Production methods are periodically inspected and the wines are submitted to an independent panel for annual tasting. Any property in the Médoc may apply.
The first vintage that came under the current system, is the 2008 vintage, announced in 2010.
Note that some very highly regarded wines outside the 1855 classification such as Château Gloria and Château Sociando-Mallet do not submit their wines for the Cru Bourgeois du Médoc classification. Thus, there is a sizable number of top producers in the Médoc today that are neither in the 1855 classification nor in the Cru Bourgeois du Médoc classification.
See:
A German Wine Maker in the Médoc: Dinner with Stefan Paeffgen at Château Le Reysse, France
Wine Dinner with Stefan and Heike Paeffgen, Château Le Reysse and Château Clos du Moulin, Vignobles Paeffgen, Appellation Médoc– Bordeaux Tour by ombiasy WineTours (2015), France
The Cru Bourgeois Classification of 2003 (Annulled)
In between the current annual classification system and the 1932 classification system set in stone, there was a new classification introduced in 2003 that was subject to a lot of controversy and later annulled. Of the 490 châteaux that applied to be included in the classification of 2003, only 247 were included, a significant contraction of the original listing made in 1932 (444 estates).
The 2003 Cru Bourgeois classification classified the 247 properties in three tiers: Exceptionnel (9 properties), Supérieurs (87 properties) and straight Bourgeois (151 properties).
In February 2007, the 2003 was annulled. At this point, the 1932 classification was briefly reinstated, with its single tier and 444 estates.
The Future: A New Classification System
The Alliance des Crus Bourgeois du Médoc in Bordeaux has confirmed that in 2020 it hopes to reintroduce a classification system bringing back the three quality levels of:
Cru Bourgeois
Cru Bourgeois Supérieur
Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel
If approved by government ministers this year, the new system would technically be valid from the 2017 vintage, but not unveiled publicly until 2020, said the director of the Cru Bourgeois classification, Frédérique Dutheillet de Lamothe.
The new classification in 2020 will bring an end to the yearly assessments that have run since 2008 and the categories assigned to estates from then on will stand for five years. Châteaux can apply to be ‘Cru Bourgeois’ or they can apply for the ‘Supérieur’ and ‘Exceptionnel’ categories where, in addition to passing a qualitative tasting test, they must pass other criteria including their agricultural and environmental practices, property management and promotion of their wine.
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