This is the final part of this introduction to Bordeaux, but we have really only scratched the surface. We’ll cover more aspects of Bordeaux in the future, like one of my favorites: how Medoc is inside itself (I’ll touch on that below, and we’ll cover it in detail later). But for now, let’s just get a feel for the way Bordeaux wines are graded qualitatively.
Bordeaux grades in decreasing order of quality:
- Chateau wine
- Regional wine
- Cru Bourgeois
- Bordeaux Superieur- technically superior to straight Bordeaux by ½ of 1 degree of alcohol. Maybe slightly better, maybe slightly more reliable than straight Bordeaux.
- Bordeaux – 40% of all red Bordeaux, 60% of all white. The good, the bad, and the ugly
- Table Wine (Wine Lake- jug wine and wine that’s converted into industrial alcohols)
Short version:
Bordeaux = $
Bordeaux + Region = $$
Bordeaux + Region + Chateau = $$ – $$$$ depending on chateau
Seems easy, doesn’t’ it? Here’s the rub: you’ve got to be familiar with the chateau names and region names or it becomes confusing very quickly. Why? Because they use the same names for different things. As I mentioned above, The Medoc is a region on the Left Bank. The Medoc is also a region within the Medoc. Right next to Haut-Medoc. So Haut-Medoc is next to Medoc and they’re both within the Medoc. Huh? This sort of title recycling is also very common in Burgundy, and it’s simple: multiple areas of winemakers trying to cash in on the cache of a particular title. Let’s say Fort Worth makes world class wines. Let’s say Dallas makes slightly lower quality wines. So they rename their wines Dallas-Fort Worth wines. That’s how Burgundy works, but Bordeaux takes it one step further: if Fort Worth wines are world famous, all of Dallas- Fort Worth wines get renamed Fort Worth. So now Fort Worth is both the area of Fort Worth and also the entire Dallas- Fort Worth metroplex. That’s how it is with Medoc: there is a small region called Medoc, and a larger area that took that title to raise the prices of their wines too. There are other examples. Chateau Margaux is a First Growth Chateau in the region of Margaux, which is next to the little Medoc but inside the big Medoc. So Chateau Margaux in in Margaux and in Medoc, and next to Medoc. This takes a little while to get used to, but it’ll sink in over time.
That covers the highest two quality levels: ranked chateaux and specific regions. Each of the other levels has it’s quandaries too. The next highest, Cru Bourgeois has it’s own dramatic tale, which we talked about in the Classification blog entry. To sum up: the Cru Bourgeois was introduced in 1932 but not controlled. When it was ‘finalized’ in 2002-3 only about half of the 500 chateaux using the title were approved. About 80 of the rejects sued, and after a bunch of suits the whole Cru Bourgeois designation was thrown out. Some Chateaux got together and restarted the Cru Bourgeois movement as a less formal quality stamp, not a legal designation. Chateaux wishing to use the stamp will apply to a peer-review board each year. this will first be for the 2010 wines, so any Cru Bourgeois labels you see on wines between 2007 and 2010 are not really legal, but the Cru Bourgeois board left it up to individual chateaux whether to use it or not.
Now for Bordeaux Superieur. Technically slightly better, by being slightly higher in alcohol. This implies slightly riper fruit, slightly greater body. Is it actually better wine? Maybe. Is it a more reliable choice? Maybe. If a winemaker is making higher alcohol wines, they’re using riper fruit, and hopefully more quality minded. That’s a whole bunch of maybes and hopefullys. In my experience Bordeaux Superieur is not consistently better.
As for straight Bordeaux, that just means the grapes were grown in Bordeaux, somewhere, and they were approved varietals (see our grapes blog entry) and very basic quality and yield rules were followed. There are some decent basic Bordeaux wines, there are some not too decent ones. Best of luck.
Now for table wine. This is actually a problem for all of France, and they call it the Wine Lake. There’s too much junk wine. It qualifies for no quality designation, and much of it is made into industrial alcohols. The French government is paying grapegrowers to rip out crap vines to reduce the Wine Lake. It’s a problem.
Well, I hope this clarifies the basics about how Bordeaux wines are stacked qualitatively. Keep in mind the basic rule: the more specific the label, the higher the price and the quality. It starts with Bordeaux, then adds on a region (Graves, Medoc, St Emilion, Cotes du Castillon, Pomerol, etc) then adds on a Chateau. Once you get to the Chateau level, you’ve got to start learning Chateau names, which is another whole elephant to eat. As always, find a good store with a reliable wine guy/gal and try lots of wines. Cheers!
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