Côtes de Bourg will not be part of the newly created Côtes de Bordeaux appellation. It can be difficult to understand why one would choose not to be part of the collaboration (originally they were going to be). “Bordeaux” is a very strong in internationally well known brand with a strong quality image. Bourg, on the contrary, is small, unknown sub-district, so why not try and dove-tail on a strong brand and joint resources? Difficult to know. We can only speculate.
Superficially, it certainly seems to be the wrong way to go. If you want to develop sales on an international market it should be better to build on “Bordeaux” rather than “Bourg”. There are far too many small and obscure appellations in France that are convinced that they must put forward their own name and their own particularities, rather than collaborate with others around a more marketable name (to take a few examples: la Livinière, Fenouillèdes, Pacherenc du Vic Bilh etc. Do you know them?). Some may of course succeed but many risk remaining in the unknown no man’s land. And what about Côte de Bourg? Maybe it has more to do with people and personalities than with marketing strategies. Perhaps Côte de Bourg will be one of those that succeed.
Côte de Bourg is evidently an appellation with lots of dynamism and lots of initiative – they make things happen. The organise things. They make noise. For example, the international malbec meeting a few weeks ago. So one sees and hears about them quite often. But we can’t say we see or hear much about the other Côtes…
Maybe that’s the answer to the question.
