Yes. It has worked out pretty well over the last 40 years or so. For example, for years, Bouchard’s Meursault Perrieres has been significantly less expensive than their Corton Charlemagne and has been a great relative value. That price difference would be significantly reduced the day Perrieres is upgraded to grand cru. Explain how that would be good for me or for anyone else with experience drinking Burgundy?
That only is helpful if they plan to sell their wines. I wish a lot of wines I have had not gone up in price so much so I could buy more mature wines. I like to drink my good Burgundies. That is why I bought them.
Where did he say anything about wanting any cru upgraded? The question was, “I am wondering which you all think are the very best 1er crus in Burgundy, the ones that might be considered Grand Cru in quality. With the price of most Grand Cru Burgundy in the stratosphere, I was hoping to get a taste of these wines at a ‘bargain’ (emphasis on the quotes).”
This is good advice. It used to amuse me to no end the threads where people would hunt down $250+ 1er crus as ‘values’ because they border a grand cru or whatever, when wines like Jadot’s Corton-Pougets were like $75 wines until pretty recently.
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Just depends. Is the point of the classification to recognize the quality of the land, or is it instead some kind of insider baseball so that the cognoscenti can get better deals on wine?
The point of classifications is to get higher prices for wines. This is all for the producers and is of limited utility for consumers. If it were to recognize the quality of the land or some other type of garbage like that, you would we downgrades as well as upgrades. When was the last time a plot of land in Burgundy was downgraded in rank?
People who know what they like will always get better deals on wine from all regions of the world whatever rules you put in place.
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Corton is less valued because it takes so long to mature. Most people, even Burgundy lovers, don’t have that much patience. Provides an excellent value for those willing to wait.
I think that was true in the past, but more recently a lot of producers are making earlier maturing corton, most notably DRC.
It is equally true that many wines that say “grand cru” on them aren’t all that interesting to drink even though they say grand cru on the label. I’m not all that interested in the Jadot Corton or the Lamarche Suchots, but for different reasons.
While this is the prevailing wisdom about Rousseau I’ve always wondered whether the differing oak treatment between Chambertin, CDB and CSJ on one hand, and the other grand crus on the other, doesn’t have as much to do with this as terroir. All of the Rousseau grand cru are pretty excellent. I wouldn’t be surprised if a Rousseau ruchottes or mazy that sees 100% new oak as opposed to 30% made people start to rethink the hierarchy.
Lol. Let me translate: “This is a fun thread with a fun premise and no real world application - how can I make it about myself and be annoying in the process?”
This is a thread on a internet forum for mostly American wine drinkers about Burgundy. The notion that its practical intention is to rewrite the classifications in Burgundy is comical. No one is using this thread to start a petition or process in Beaune to get CsJ or Amoureuses upgraded to grand cru status. This thread, today, is just about relative quality of the sites, for shits and giggles.
Good grief.
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I think Rousseau’s oak treatment on the CsJ is itself a statement of how they view the site.
Didn’t DRC keep the Prince Florent de Merode winemaker when they took over the plot?
Do you, um, like wine? Every time I see one of your posts it’s complaining about some or another wine you don’t like. Maybe consider stamp collecting? What you see is what you get there. Less room for disappointment.
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You got me Keith! Hate the stuff.
Given the importance of producer in Burgundy, why isnt there a classification of producers similar to that for terroir.
While it’s not the point of the thread, I’m not convinced upgrading some 1ers would even move prices all that much. Maybe at the lower end, but as others have pointed out, many top 1ers are already significantly more expensive than many or even most grand crus, suggesting the market is already highly efficient at finding out what wines are really worth.
There is: price. Not perfect, but generally works - e.g. Leroy > everyone else. And if you disagree with the market’s ranking, you have an arbitrage / value opportunity.
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Producers change winemakers and styles. It’s quite hard to do! Plus, some wines from some producers can be of varied quality (especially for domaine/negoce bottlings). And, of course, whom do you trust to do the ranking? 
I’m not sure; it’s certainly more “DRC” tasting now than the older PFDM bottlings to me anyways though.