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Definition: crus bourgeois du médoc
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Responsiveness was key to a rapid resolution of the crisis, in order to offer professionals and consumers an alternative to the cancelled classification, starting with the 2007 en primeur campaign, which will be tasted in spring 2008 for release on the market in 2009.
More flexible and quicker to implement than a new classification, the solution of a label, followed by a qualification, gained ground in 2007. After several months of consultation with Médoc producer groups in a systematic search for consensus, the Alliance des Crus Bourgeois du Médoc, the Union des Viticulteurs du Médoc and the Coopération du Médoc agreed to create a "Cru Bourgeois" qualification, which would be awarded annually and open to all wines from the defined production area, i.e. 8 AOCs (Médoc, Haut-Médoc, Margaux, Moulis, Listrac, Saint-Julien, Pauillac, St Estèphe).
The awarding of the classification by an independent certifying body, subject to compliance with a set of specifications in terms of cultivation and winemaking and a tasting organised by the same external body (to which producers who would never constitute the majority would be added) are the backbone of this new label. Similarly, all the details must be finalised for the spring 2008 en primeur tastings and, above all, the marketing of the 2007 vintage the following year; in other words, the challenge is a real one.
Candidates for the "Cru Bourgeois" qualification should be able to make themselves known in the first few weeks of 2008. The visual identity will be retained as it has the support of the majority of producers. Promotional campaigns are already planned, with tastings in Belgium and Paris in particular, as a prelude to the primeur tastings in Bordeaux.
The director of the Alliance des Crus Bourgeois du Médoc sums up the process and the purpose of the initiative perfectly: "Whatever its reputation, every estate needs its family"; thus, the divorce seems to be finalised, reconciliation and rebirth are underway, and reconstruction is desired by all. The ingredients are in place to redefine, around the new classification, a much-needed unity at a time when the fragility and vulnerability of our production regions are, unfortunately, still very much in evidence. Further information is available on the official website at:
More flexible and quicker to implement than a new classification, the solution of a label, followed by a qualification, gained ground in 2007. After several months of consultation with Médoc producer groups in a systematic search for consensus, the Alliance des Crus Bourgeois du Médoc, the Union des Viticulteurs du Médoc and the Coopération du Médoc agreed to create a "Cru Bourgeois" qualification, which would be awarded annually and open to all wines from the defined production area, i.e. 8 AOCs (Médoc, Haut-Médoc, Margaux, Moulis, Listrac, Saint-Julien, Pauillac, St Estèphe).
The awarding of the classification by an independent certifying body, subject to compliance with a set of specifications in terms of cultivation and winemaking and a tasting organised by the same external body (to which producers who would never constitute the majority would be added) are the backbone of this new label. Similarly, all the details must be finalised for the spring 2008 en primeur tastings and, above all, the marketing of the 2007 vintage the following year; in other words, the challenge is a real one.
Candidates for the "Cru Bourgeois" qualification should be able to make themselves known in the first few weeks of 2008. The visual identity will be retained as it has the support of the majority of producers. Promotional campaigns are already planned, with tastings in Belgium and Paris in particular, as a prelude to the primeur tastings in Bordeaux.
The director of the Alliance des Crus Bourgeois du Médoc sums up the process and the purpose of the initiative perfectly: "Whatever its reputation, every estate needs its family"; thus, the divorce seems to be finalised, reconciliation and rebirth are underway, and reconstruction is desired by all. The ingredients are in place to redefine, around the new classification, a much-needed unity at a time when the fragility and vulnerability of our production regions are, unfortunately, still very much in evidence. Further information is available on the official website at: