CRU BOURGEOIS EXCEPTIONNEL: The 2020 selection’s top 14

For a word that’s become associated with the establishment, cru ‘bourgeois’ wines have pretty revolutionary origins. The exact date of arrival is not certain – some say they date back to the 13th century, when Bordeaux was a duchy of the English crown. Others to the 15th century, when French laws were relaxed to allow the best land not to be the sole preserve of the church or of titled aristocrats.

Their real rise, though, clearly came after the French Revolution itself, when noble lands were broken up. These estates, owned by