I think Alex deserves serious comments and thoughtful discussion, so let’s try that.
First of all, I tried to find the list just out of curiosity, but unfortunately the website at http://www.fgvb.fr does not have an English alternative and my French is rather rusty.I tried to make my way through, but at every turn I was asked for a log in ID and password except fr a few times when I clicked on links that just did not work. I eventually gave up. So I Googled 8,944 Bordeaux Chateau and I found this thread, but nothing else helpful.
Then I hit on an idea - how about using Cellartracker to identify Bordeaux Chateaux and see which ones I recognized. Since I memorized the first three levels of the 1855 classification when I was in high school, I figured that I had a chance of knowing more than just a few. CT had 10,694 Bordeaux producers, with some clutter, some Chateaux that no longer exist, and some second wines resulting in double counting. So the number is in the ballpark, to use an American idiom. I then made it all the way to #89 by number of bottles listed in CT - Chateaux St. Pierre - before I got to a wine that I did not recognize. Once I got to about #150 - there were a lot of unknowns. By the time I got to #350, I had heard of maybe one out of 10. If I jump forward a few more hundred and discard second wines, I know jut a couple out of every 100.
Is my lack of knowledge of the thousands of Bordeaux Chateaux is somehow an adverse reflection on the buyer, or the seller, or perhaps the seller’s market as a whole. The answer to me is clear - if the Federation des Grand Vin de Bordeaux have any expectation that I am going to know of or care about such a huge number of Chateaux, they are walking down the wrong path. Furthermore, if they think that I am going to exert the effort to hunt through the thousands of wines in order to find a few gems, they are CRAZY. There are so many great wine choices throughout the world. I have 38 different Bordeaux Chateaux in my cellar, and I think 36 of them still exist. If they want that number to inch upwards, especially if they want it to inch upwards other than through the 1855 classification or the later St. Emilion classifications, they had better get to work.
Just for fun - here is a list of the round number Chateaux from Cellartracker based upon number of recorded bottles. I know that the data isn’t perfect and there is plenty of clutter, but just for fun, tell me which of these you have (A) heard of and (B) tasted. I get a score of 1 out of 9, and that is only because I knew a guy named Lamothe whose family came here from France in the 1800s and I once checked for all Lamothe wines in CT.
1000 - Guinaudeau
2000 - Château Tour Perey
3000 - Château Cotes de Bonde
4000 - Château Grandchemin Monplaisir
5000 - Château Daubiac
6000 - Château d’Argilas Le Pape
7000 - Y. Armand et Fils Chateau la Rame
8000 - Château Peyragué
9000 - Château Moulin Lamothe
After which we have zero bottles in CT for wine 10000.
PS - Since Chateau means castle, I wonder whether all of these places actually have castles. What does it take to qualify as a chateau? Since the French were so protective about the use of the word Chateau among California wineries because it is a French word, do they strictly adhere to its own meaning in Bordeaux wine nomenclature?