Bordeaux

In my last post I spoke about a Bordeaux, an Haut-Medoc, Cru Bourgeois, Chateau Tourteran 1999. I do not know what I will do when the grocery store finishes its stock, although I have been drinking it for more than a year now. Maybe they are ‘brewing’ it in the back, it may be counterfeit! Sounds nutty but apparently it is a real problem with great wines of a certain age; however, I don’t really think this is the case with this. I do have to let it breathe before serving it and the longer, the better. Sometimes I say that it is better the second day, like a big stew. I just read that it is the ‘second wine’ of a certain Château Ramage la Batisse, a Cru Bourgeois Supérieur, purchased by Macif, a large French insurance company, in 1986. Both chateaux use traditional methods in their winemaking and are respected for their Haut-Médoc.

Bordeaux classifications are not the same as Burgundy’s Villages, Premier Cru and Grand Cru. The Cru Bourgeois label on this Haut-Medoc places it under a long list of Grand Crus. In the Grand Crus alone, there are several levels of the Grands Crus Classés – Premier, Deuxième, Troisième, Quatrième, and Cinquiéme (also know as First Growths, Second Growths, etc.). These classifications were primarily established in 1855 to classify quality in Bordeaux. With the Cru Bourgeois classification, there are Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel, Cru Bourgeois Supérieur, and Cru Bourgeois.

All but one of the wines in the Premier Grands Crus Classés list is from Haut Médoc and that one was a Graves that has been reclassified as a Pessac-Leognan to account for soil structure changes caused by urbanization around Bordeaux. That is quite a comment on the importance of terroir in the wine. At the same time as this 1855 list, the Bordeaux sweet wines were classified as well with nine classified as Premier Cru (First Growth), eleven as Deuxième Cru and Château d’Yequem granted Premier Cru Supérieur classification.

Graves, Saint-Emilion and Pomerol were not listed in the 1855 classification and the two first felt their sales suffered. Pomerol remains unclassified but produces very expensive wines - Petrus, for example. Since the original classification, Graves has created its own classification as has Saint-Emilion. However, unlike the Bordeaux Grands Crus and Graves lists, the Saint-Emilion list changes each ten years based on recent assessments of quality. Saint-Emilion classifications are slightly different from the 1855 Bordeaux listings. There are currently fifteen Premier Crus divided between Premier Grand Crus Classés A (2 wines) and Premier Grand Crus Classés B (13 wines). Furthermore, there are another group of Saint-Emilions classified as Grands Crus Classés that fall under the Premier Cru.

Makes my head spin, but I thought you would like to know!