Uniter of talents

Thanks to the determination of its president and founder, Alain Raynaud, the Grand Cercle des Vins de Bordeaux came into existence in June 2013 to unite within one entity wines of the Right and Left Banks.

At present, it brings together a large number of wine estates: 113 for the Cercle Rive Droite and 51 for the Cercle Rive Gauche. With the diversity and complementarity of appellations, terroirs and wine professionals and with almost 160 wines, the Grand Cercle presents a showcase of Bordeaux’s fine wines selected for their great quality.

Points in common

The Grand Cercle properties all share the following :
A common geographical location, Bordeaux, namely the right bank and the left bank of the Gironde River.

For the right bank, the estates are situated in the following appellations: Bordeaux, Bordeaux Supérieur, Entre-Deux-Mers, Sainte-Foy Bordeaux, Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux, Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux, Côtes de Bourg, Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux, Francs Côtes de Bordeaux, Pomerol, Lalande de Pomerol, Fronsac, Canon Fronsac, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru, Montagne Saint-Emilion, Lussac Saint-Emilion,

For the left bank, the estates are situated in the following appellations : Médoc, Saint-Estèphe, Pauillac, Saint-Julien, Listrac, Margaux, Haut-Médoc, Graves, Pessac-Léognan, Sauternes.

A common fundamental focus on quality and expressing the individual personality of their wines.
Common ethical practices with regard to production and the way the wines are taken to market.

Ethical practices

The Grand Cercle wines are united by a code of practice with obligations in the following domains :
A continuous quest for innovation : analysis of cross sections of the different land types, study of the water drainage and retention characteristics of the plots, disease control with the least possible recourse to chemical products ; Control of yields : pruning, bud and sucker removal, etc. The use of a multitude of techniques to achieve optimally ripe grapes in clean, disease-free condition ; Vineyard protection, rational use of pesticides : taking into account the whole ecosystem and protecting it, ensuring the sustained survival of organic balances ; Care when harvesting grapes, recommending manual harvesting : carrying fruit in trays, sorting and selection of grapes in the vineyard and in the vathouse ; Ageing the wines in oak barrels : seeking to express specific aromatic qualities and more complex bouquets ; Welcoming visitors to the estates : introducing passing callers-in to the vineyards, the landscapes and wines.

Some figures

164 properties
27 appellations
3 300 hectares

Organisation

President : Alain Raynaud

Cercle Rive Droite - President : Alain Raynaud
Cercle Rive Gauche - President : Francis Boutemy

Board of 7 Directors

Technical Commission / Admissions Commission
Promotion Commission / Youngs Commission

Permanent staff :
Stéphanie Delécrin

Monitoring quality

To ensure that The Grand Cercle is not just a club made up of members who join by simply declaring themselves as such, but also a real selection of chateaux, united because of their quality, the Cercle submits all its wines to two obligatory tastings every year.

A vintage ready to be delivered undergoes a full blind tasting, carried out by an outside independent jury. Up to now, the Grand European Jury (GJE) has been requested to organise this professional tasting.

Founded in 1996 by François Mauss, the GJE sets out to provide an alternative assessment of the great world wines with reference to the individual scores given by the best international connoisseurs, especially the English and American tasters, whose 100-point scoring method the GJE adopts to make worldwide benchmarking easier. The GJE assembles at least 12 of its Permanent Members from at least 6 different European Union countries (plus Switzerland) to organise a blind tasting of a selection of wines in two daily 3-hour sessions under the control of a legal entity. “15 top-level tasters in a blind tasting cannot all make a mistake at the same time in the same place with the same wine”.

Every year, a concentration of skills, brought together at a unique moment in time to approve the quality of the wines of the Cercle !

A ‘primeur’ vintage is tasted blind in February by the Technical Commission of the Cercle.
The opinion of professionals based on samples of futures, is the best way to prepare for the official tastings to come…