Cru Bourgeois classification officially over July 10, 2007
Jane Anson
The suspension of the Cru Bourgeois was rubber-stamped last week: the classification is officially annulled and use of the term Cru Bourgeois is now illegal.
The French fraud office (the DGCCRF) announced its decision at the end of June, via a letter delivered to the Gironde Wine Growers Federation. The use of the term Cru Bourgeois on bottles would be illegal. 'In the absence of a full classification, the term can not be used,' the letter read.
Since the initial suspension in February 2007, following legal challenges brought against the 2003 classification by excluded property owners, chateaux have been unsure exactly what was allowed or not allowed on the labels, and although a definitive judgement has now been given over the term itself, it is still not clear from which date the ruling will be enforced.
'The 2005 vintage is already in bottle,' one insider commented, 'so it is surely impossible to change anything now. The 2006 is in barrel, and the agrément (approval process for the granting of the appellation) has already begun, so we expect this ruling to be enforced from the 2007 vintage.'
Frederique de la Motte, director of the Alliance des Crus Bourgeios, told decanter.com, 'We will absolutely be trying again, and looking to redo the classification. Right now, you can't use the term at all and that's a disaster for all the property owners of cru bourgeois.'
The ban applies to all wines, whether formally included or excluded from the 2003 classification, and also extends to those few wines in Sauternes and Cotes de Bourg and Blaye which are still using the term.
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Before the French authorities decapitated the Cru Bourgeois classification, they should have invited English-language wine writers to submit amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs. On literary grounds, many would have urged retention.
English offers no satisfactory synonym for 'cru,' which crudely translates as 'growth.' Hence, cru classé translates as 'classed growths.' I never liked this odd use of 'growth' because it always brings to mind 'carbuncle.'
In pre-wine days, when I first encountered the phrase 'First Growth,' a translation of Premier Cru, I asked, 'Premier what?' Like a fishhook's permanent scar left in an escaped trout 'First Growth' still pricks my sense of proper English.
Those of us who connect with our social origins identify with the idea Cru Bourgeois. While 'cru,' alas, remains 'growth,' 'bourgeois' at least means 'middle class,' where most of us live, or to which we aspire.
Many of us will never climb into financial strata roughly associated with Premiers Crus through Cinquièmes Crus. We must be content to be well-adjusted bourgeoisie. In depriving us of our comfortable classification, the French are in effect evicting us.
Is this a fitting way to reward Les Américains for liberating Paris? I am shocked, shocked. Howard G Goldberg, New York
Personally I favour a renaming for the top echelon of chateaux below the 1855s. There is the perplexing issue of 'cru', which also translates as 'rough', 'raw' or 'unpasteurised'. But these days, to a British ear 'bourgeois' is not quite as aspirational as it is to a French oreille. There is now a clear opportunity to bring the Syndicat into the 21st Century and to cast off the aristo-manqué mantel of the past.
Hugo Rose MW, UK
The released information seems to be a real bad joke !!
The decision taken by the DGCCRF is harmfull in many ways to the wine producers who have done and still doing all their best efforts to increase the quality of the wines they produce and it is normal that you get a recognition of the efforts they have done for years to receive a qualification upgrading of their products so as the consumers can rely on the classification made by the jury composed of trustable persons.
This decision is really a nonsense when ALL the wine producing countries are considering to adapt themselves to the French laws and classifications which they consider as an example to establish their own legislation in this matter
It is a UBUESQUE situation where good and not so good producers will be equally treated and consumers will have no official reference to guide their selection. It is just as if the diplomas of different grades were treated equal !! Making quality will no more be officially recognized and qualified and French producers will be facing still more price competition in a world market where neophites are plenty and willing to learn and to have a reliable guidance to start from. They will be left at the mercy of publicity and low prices !!
This step back will certainly not help the economic situation of French wine producers.
We could joke on the French administration but the consequences of this decision impide to do so !!
It is to hope that "le bon sens" will inspire the DGCCRF and that it will reverse the steam to help the producers who deserve it!
Maurice P Jacquemin, Mexican importer
Dear Mr Goldberg,
Paris has not been liberated by americans but by the parisian themselves.
Did "les Americains" forgot that they are the "land of the free" thanks to
the Frenches? Un grand bonjour mon ami!!! Check history and say thanks to
the Brits, they did the real deal!
Ludovic, Paris, France
Dear Mr. Ludovic,
A quick check of history, shows that the liberation of Paris started in the beaches of Normandy where British, Canadian and American troops, troops lost thousands of life's to liberate not only Paris but France, something the French would have been unable to do. A little gratitude and respect would be the minimum someone would expect. But you seem too conceited to recognize the sacrifice others made so you could be a free country. Yes gratitude is also owed by the Americans to the French who helped their revolution, but I feel there is plenty of that to be seen in the USA.
Max Eyzaguirre, Santiago, Chile
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Before the French authorities decapitated the Cru Bourgeois classification, they should have invited English-language wine writers to submit amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs. On literary grounds, many would have urged retention.
