Reconnaissance de Cru Bourgeois to be announced in September
Wine lovers have a new Bordeaux classification to look forward to in September, when the Reconnaissance de Cru Bourgeois will be announced.
The Cru Bourgeois Alliance has created a novel system of wine rating, which will see a panel of independent experts selecting "benchmark" wines to set the standard for the classification, decanter.com reports.
"The professionals who score the panel are the same ones that score the 290 crus, meaning that they are applying the same method as they did for scoring the panel tasting," the news provider reports alliance spokeswoman Brinda Bourhis as saying.
The system will feature just one level of quality, in an effort to do away with the premium and super-premium that caused problems for the 2003 classification.
However, Reconnaissance de Cru Bourgeois has prompted some producers such as chateaux Chasse Spleen, Les Ormes de Pez and Pontensac to form their own alliance, Les Exceptionnels.
It follows news late last month that Rasteau in the southern Rhone has been promoted to AOC status by appellations body the INAO.