cru bourgeois, a category of red wine properties, or crus, designated bourgeois, or a social stratum below the supposedly aristocratic crus classés. While the crus classés represent about 25% of the Médoc’s total wine production from 60 estates, the crus bourgeois, from a possible total of more than 250 generally much smaller estates, represent a further 40% or so. The properties can vary, however, from simple smallholdings to others such as Ch Larose-Trintaudon, the largest estate in the Médoc with its own vast château buildings, or Ch Clarke of Listrac, on which Baron Edmond de rothschild lavished a large fortune.
