This, in any event, is what the Syndicat des Bordeaux et Bordeaux Supérieur have just decided.
However, they now need approval from the INAO (whose initials have stayed the name, but now stand for Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité) before the name can be used.
I wonder if they will obtain this approval?
I’m sure there will be some fierce opposition…
Frankly, I’m not convinced it’s such a good idea. How do you explain to a Chinaman (or someone in Hoboken, for that matter) that a grand cru in Saint-Julien and a grand cru Bordeaux are two very different animals?
Already, not one person in 100 knows the difference between a Saint Emilion grand cru and a Saint Emilion grand cru classé…
The Bx. and Bx. Sup. appellations account for over half of all production in the Gironde department.
It’s true that, due to a variety of reasons, the wines aren’t selling well, and the movers and shakers suffer from a certain amount of dross and a lacklustre name.
Why not? Every bottle of Bordeaux already has to say “Grand Vin”, so what’s the difference between that and “Grand Cru”? A $7 Californian can have “Reserve” splashed all over the label. All these terms that mean dfferent things in differnent places are really meaningless.
The words “grand vin” are restricted to Bordeaux Supérieur on up i.e. a Bordeaux cannot use these words on the label.
I’m just worried that many people will see the words “Bordeaux” and “Grand Cru” and expect to be drinking a Léoville Las Cases for $ 6.99…
In other words, I think that the producers may be rocking the boat too much and confusing people trying to come to grips with a hierarchy that is already not simple to understand…
Alex, thanks for the clarification. But isn’t the only requirement for Bordeaux Superieur to be 12.5% alc vs Bordeaux at 12%? In any case, Many Bordeaux Superieur are available here for under $10 a bottle, and it is laughable that they should be labelled Grand Vin.
I agree with you that it is a joke to be labelling them as Grand Cru, but I would hope that anyone who is thinking about buying bottles of Cru Classe Bordeaux would know enough about wine not to be confused. If not, well then maybe they will learn from their experience. I made plenty of mistakes when I started buying fine wine, and I am probably still making mistakes.
In the end, as I had posted before elsewhere, hierarchy does not matter as much as the Parker score. Demand for the wines will not be impacted by the new label, but only by improved quality (as reported by Parker).
Alex, not sure if you are a native speaker or not, but I sure don’t appreciate your choice of words.
Errol, I don’t think the issue is with critics scores for those wines. Parker and others will never see them, they are way below his radar and in most cases it would be a stretch to call them “fine wine”. The reality of these times is that they produce wine artisanally that is of the same quality as what the rest of the world produces on a much larger scale. They are doomed to fail. They don’t need points, they need to move on to the next level and invest in marketing.
Guillaume, which of Alex’s words don’t you appreciate? Being a mid-westerner, are you sensitive towards making fun of people from Hoboken?
Anyways, I agree that Bordeaux needs better marketing, but not advertising. I still maintain that they need points, so maybe they need to get Winespectator, or better yet Jay Miller out to a nice dinner and show him some of the wines. They could even have some special cuvees doctored with some extra residual sugar to show well.
Seriously, I would be surprised if any of the ‘sleeper’ wines mentioned by Parker are having trouble selling. Many of those are Bordeaux and Bordeaux Superieur.
I don’t know what in the world you’re talking about.
Could you please explain either in French or English?
That you are critical is one thing, but that you are completely enigmatic is quite another…
In most cases it would be a stretch to call Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur fine wines?
Hmmmm. Depends on your definition…
You say “they are doomed to fail”.
That seems like a fairly sweeping statement to me!!!
Care to elucidate?
If that’s it, it’s political correctness gone awry!!!
China is still a 3rd world country, but one growing by leaps and bounds and becoming wealthier all the time.
However, the people don’t have the slightest idea of what Bordeaux wine is about.
Therefore my example was perfectly normal and I think Guillaume must have a pretty thin skin!
Furthermore, I added “or in Hoboken, for that matter”.
Alex – In the U.S. and Canada, and I think probably in the U.K. as well, it is an archaic term that you never hear today. It referred more to race than nationality and thus has a lingering racist hint to it. It’s a no-no.
Now I’m intrigued as well. Guillaume, exprimez-vous!
As for the “Grand Cru” label…I believe there can be some really excellent wine produced in lesser celebrated AOCs like Bx or Bx Sup., but you definitely have to search. However, Bordeaux is confusing enough for regular consumers out there…not as bad as Burgundy, but close enough.
And Alex, I never got to La Cave de Bigoudy last year. C’est dommage ça- j’aime beaucoup ce quartier de centre ville. How’s Bordeaux?
Contrary to what Guillaume assumed, I am a native English speaker, albeit one who has lived abroad for decades.
This is what I found from Wiki about the term Chinaman:
(Worldwide English) Chinese person, used in the gold rush and railway-construction eras in western North America, when discrimination against Chinese was common. [33] Though widely used historically without offensive intent, the term today generates controversy when still used in geographic places associated or resembling Chinese. Fowler’s Dictionary of English Usage as late as 1956 describes it as the term for a Chinese person, whereas the term Chinese was only used as an adjective for things. Though it is widely used as an ironic self-reference by many North Americans of Chinese descent, and is still heard in the lyrics to the 70s song “Kung Fu Fighting” and Fast and Furious movie song “Tokyo Drift” by the teriyaki boys, it tends to generate objections in modern times, especially in the US where Asian-American is the preferred nomenclature.
So, this would seem to be a North American thing of recent date, and one of which I was certainly unaware, otherwise you could be sure I would not have used the expression on a forum where most of the members are American.
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