Bordeaux wine is schizophrenic. To a casual wine drinker, it is home to the most famous and unattainably expensive wines in the world. The First Growth estates; Ch. Lafitte-Rothschild, Ch. Mouton-Rothschild, Ch. Haut-Brion, Ch. Margaux and Ch. Latour, however, account for .0032 percent of the total acreage of Bordeaux. Plus, those 1855 Classifications of Medoc, that are still in use today, only classified a small portion of Bordeaux, which is massive. France is the second largest producer of wine in the world and Bordeaux accounts for more than a quarter of that production. In terms of acreage, Bordeaux is more than six times larger than Napa Valley. While the First Growth estates, and to a much lesser extent the 2nd-5th Growth estates, have feasted, the vast majority of Bordeaux struggles to sell wine in the ever-increasingly competitive world market of wine. The non-classed wineries of Bordeaux are humble, family-owned operations or co-operatives that are quite literally rural endeavors. Here one can get extraordinary value. Jean Marc Barthez belongs to this Bordeaux and is the president of a co-operative centered in the village of Monségur. Monségur hugs the South bank of the Dropt River, a tributary of the Garonne, and its tendency to flood not only imparts alluvial soils (which are so highly coveted in the classed growths) but has inhibited development such that the countryside has remained largely unchanged for hundreds of years. Some of the families that contribute to the co-operative can trace their land holdings back to Roman times and therefore farm in the most sustainable ways. This blend of 50% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Cabernet Franc is aged without oak, keeping the dark plum, cherry and currant fruit, herbs and spice in focus. This is burger Bordeaux!