Picking through the 2018 crus bourgeois

The youthful team at Ch Le Crock, St-Estèphe

So how useful is the new classification of crus bourgeois? And which are the best buys from the latest vintage to be released? Above is the youthful team at Ch Le Crock, responsible for one of James's favourite 2018 crus bourgeois.

In February 2020 the Alliance des Crus Bourgeois du Médoc announced a new, five-year classification of its members. Supplementing the change, a three-tier hierarchy of cru bourgeois, cru bourgeois supérieur and cru bourgeois exceptionnel was also reintroduced. In total 249 châteaux were classified.

The first vintage released under the new regime is 2018 and over the last few weeks...