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After the French government scrapped the 2003 revision of the Médoc's Cru Bourgeois classification this past June, area wine producers are proposing the creation of a label displaying the term Label Cru Bourgeois to replace the classification in the meantime. During a specially convened general assembly on July 24, nearly all 230 members of L'Alliance des Crus Bourgeois du Médoc, the wine trade organization uniting most of the growers using the designation, voted in favor of the project.

Médoc producers currently cannot use the words Cru Bourgeois on their labels as of the 2007 vintage.

"Our objective is that of defining the label in order for it to be used for the 2007 vintage in 18 months' time," explained Frédérique Dutheillet de Lamothe, director of L'Alliance. According to the organization, the right to use Label Cru Bourgeois will be attributed on an annual basis, open to all Médoc wines and determined by an independent body. Other criteria have yet to be determined.

The Cru Bourgeois rankings were drawn up in 1932 to cover properties in the Médoc and Haut-Médoc that were left out of the 1855 Classification of the most prestigious châteaus, and consisted of three categories: cru bourgeois supérieur exceptionnel, cru bourgeois supérieur and cru bourgeois. Over time, these rankings became obsolete as some châteaus declined in quality or were absorbed into other properties, while others developed strong reputations on their own. In 1979, European labeling laws officially recognized the traditional designation of Cru Bourgeois; however its use had to be codified by the French government.

After years of re-evaluating estates and wines, a panel that included château owners, members of the Bordeaux trade, the area's enology school and others issued a revised classification in 2003, but the results were immediately called into question by dozens of producers who argued that the ranking criteria were not applied evenly--and that there were conflicts of interest at play. Bordeaux's administrative court of appeals agreed, effectively restoring the 1932 ranking system. Then in June 2007, the French Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control Office (DGCCRF) decided to rule out the possibility of reverting back to the initial classification and banned the use of the designation until a new listing is established.

L'Alliance is hoping a new classification will one day be approved, but believes a medium-term alternative is needed for marketing purposes. "We have no idea how long it will take to re-establish another classification," said Dutheillet de Lamothe. "It took a couple of years to determine the selection criteria for the 2003 listing, and a further two years to evaluate the close to 500 châteaus in the running," she stressed.

However, before getting off the ground, the idea has to be approved by several different Médoc wine associations, as well as by government authorities. Some have yet to be consulted while others have yet to be informed, though L'Alliance could not say for sure how many organizations in total will need to be involved.

The DGCCRF has indicated that the ban applies to all wines, starting from the 2007 vintage onward, but the recent legal wrangling has not taken into account the handful of properties outside the Médoc--in Sauternes, Côtes de Bourg and Premières Côtes de Blaye--that have also long used the Cru Bourgeois term on their labels. Since 1868, the successive editions of Bordeaux and its Wines by Cocks and Feret, which presents the wines valued by brokers at the time, also attributed the Cru Bourgeois distinction to wines outside the Médoc--some of which are still using the designation.

The Premières Côtes de Blaye Crus Bourgeois Wine Syndicate, which represents 12 châteaus in this area on the Right Bank, across from Pauillac, said that it had not been officially notified about the DGCCRF's ruling. "If the authorities try to prevent us from using the term, we will contest the decision in court," said syndicate president Michel Chapard. This small group of Cru Bourgeois winegrowers is on the verge of officially asking permission to use the designation from the French Minister for Agriculture, in order to distance itself from the current controversy.

Considering the economic consequences of the ban, Chapard said the Médoc's move to create a temporary label is understandable, since wine drinkers have long associated the Cru Bourgeois classification with quality. "However, the ranking system has to prevent the term from being used by all and sundry, otherwise it will lose all value," he said.