Classification

The Crus Artisans du Médoc

The smallest list in Bordeaux, and the only one that classifies the person as well as the wine: 40 of its 100 points are for the work the owner does with their own hands.

What it is

A classification of small Médoc estates whose owner works the vines, makes the wine and sells it. It covers the same 8 appellations as the Crus Bourgeois: Médoc, Haut-Médoc, Margaux, Listrac-Médoc, Moulis-en-Médoc, Saint-Julien, Pauillac and Saint-Estèphe. There is 1 rank, Cru Artisan, and the list in force holds 33 classifications over 32 estates, because Château Moutte Blanc is classified 2 times, in Margaux and in Haut-Médoc.

How it moves

Every 5 years since 2017, and the list in force covers the 2022 to 2026 vintages. A candidate is audited on its own ground and tasted on 3 vintages by a jury of 8, split into 2 panels of 2 merchants, 2 brokers, 2 oenologists and 2 viticultural experts. The estate must vinify on the property the grapes it grew there and bottle the wine there, and it may carry the mention for 1 name in each appellation and no more.

What it measures that no other list does

Personal work, and it puts a number on it. 40 of the 100 points are for the owner’s own involvement in the vineyard, the cellar, the selling and the paperwork, assessed by an audit on the property, and a candidate who scores under 20 of those 40 is out whatever the wine tastes like. The other 60 are for the wine, with 30 the minimum, and 60 out of 100 is the pass. No other Bordeaux classification scores the grower rather than the estate.

Every edition

5

  1. 1868

    The term is printed

    The name Crus Artisans is printed in the Cocks et Féret guide of 1868. The thing it names is older than the name: in the 17th century the artisans of the Médoc, the wheelwright, the farrier and the cooper, held vines and worked them with their own hands between jobs.

  2. 1989

    The syndicate is founded

    After the term had fallen out of use in the 1930s, the growers form the Syndicat des Crus Artisans du Médoc at Pauillac to bring it back.

  3. 1994 June 1994

    Europe lets it on the label

    European rules admit the mention and allow it to be printed on the main label. The French state published the designation in the Journal Officiel from 2006, and the first classification under it is of that year.

  4. 2017 December 26, 2017

    The 5 year cycle

    The syndicate adopts a new cahier des charges (the classification’s own rulebook) at its extraordinary general meeting of November 29, 2017, and the order of December 26, 2017 homologates it. From here the classification is rebuilt every 5 years rather than renewed year by year.

  5. 2023 May 12, 2023

    The list in force

    The order of October 21, 2022 homologates the cahier des charges (the classification’s own rulebook) and the verification plan, repealing the order of 2017, and the application window opens on October 28, 2022 for 61 days. Qualisud, the certifying body, declares the classification closed on May 12, 2023. It covers the 2022 to 2026 vintages.

    33 classifications over 32 estates, in 6 of the 8 appellations entitled to the mention. Pauillac and Moulis-en-Médoc have none.

Notes

Where this list comes from

The syndicate publishes the roll only as 2 photographs of the proclamation, so the names here are taken from the certifying body’s own text, which is the document the arrêté names. The 2 agree on all 33 classifications.

The list today

33

Cru Artisan 33

Sources

Qualisud, the proclamation of the Crus Artisans du Médoc classification, May 12, 2023 · Qualisud, the cahier des charges of the Crus Artisans classification · Arrêté du 21 octobre 2022 homologating the cahier des charges of the Crus Artisans classification · Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux, the Crus Artisans du Médoc · Syndicat des Crus Artisans du Médoc

All the classifications