Bordeaux is to the wine what Rolls Royce is to autos, the pinnacle of class. It’s what every wine lover lusts to try and will pay a king’s ransom to do so. For all other regions that aspire to produce great wines, Bordeaux is the “gold standard”. In the best vintages, Bordeaux produces wines that are so confounding that trying to put their brilliance into words is nearly impossible. Due to the quality of this region, the châteaux (any wine producing house) were forced into classes at the request of Napoleon III, in an attempt to create a hierarchy of quality. But is this class system necessary today?
To start to understand the intent of the Bordeaux Wine Classification of 1855, we must first understand the man who requested it and why. Napoleon III was in many ways a civil visionary that was pleased by straight lines, rationality and order. These characteristics are best illustrated by looking at a map of Paris.
During the renovation of Paris, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann created the controversial urban plan that we witness today and to which Napoleon enthusiastically approved of. With long, straight boulevards running parallel to the Seine River, the design was unheard of at the time. Although provocative, the easy to navigate grid of roads is a thing of beauty and played into Napoleon’s insatiable desire for order.
Similarly, Napoleon requested a classification of Bordeaux’s châteaux for the upcoming Exposition Universelle de Paris. The goal of this classification would be to provide a ranking system that was easy to understand for those importers visiting the agricultural venue at the Expo. For the purposes of the classification, the châteaux were ranked based on two parameters: reputation for quality and trading price at the time.
All of the châteaux in the classification hail from the Médoc region except for one exemplary house from Graves, Château Haut-Brion. Since this classification leaves out the châteaux situated on the right bank of the Gironde estuary as well as other regions in Bordeaux, it’s not an all encompassing classification.* With that being said, it’s the most significant and highly-regarded classification in the wine world. Not bad considering it was only meant to be temporary.
The 1855 classification broke down the châteaux into five categories, knows and Crus (meaning “growths”). The following is how the market at the time dictated the hierarchy of wine:
Premiers Crus (First Growth)
- Château Haut-Brion
- Château Lafite-Rothschild
- Château Latour
- Château Margaux
Deuxièmes Crus (Second Growths)
- Château Brane-Cantenac
- Château Cos d’Estournel
- Château Ducru-Beaucaillou
- Château Durfort-Vivens
- Château Gruaud-Larose
- Château Lascombes
- Château Léoville Barton
- Château Léoville-Las Cases
- Château Léoville-Poyferré
- Château Montrose
- Château Mouton-Rothschild (reclassified as a First Growth in 1973)
- Château Pichon Longueville Baron
- Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande
- Château Rauzan-Gassies
- Château Rauzan-Ségla
Troisièmes Crus (Third Growths)
- Château Boyd-Cantenac
- Château Calon-Ségur
- Château Cantenac-Brown
- Château Desmirail
- Château Dubignon (absorbed by Malescot St. Exupéry in the post- phylloxera** era)
- Château Ferrière
- Château Giscours
- Château d’Issan
- Château Kirwan
- Château Lagrange
- Château La Lagune
- Château Langoa Barton
- Château Malescot St. Exupéry
- Château Marquis d’Alesme Becker
- Château Palmer
Quatrièmes Crus (Fourth Growths)
- Château Beychevelle
- Château Branaire-Ducru
- Château Duhart-Milon-Rothschild
- Château Lafon-Rochet
- Château La Tour Carnet
- Château Marquis de Terme
- Château Pouget
- Château Prieuré-Lichine
- Château Saint-Pierre
- Château Talbot
Cinquièmes Crus (Fifth Growths)
- Château d’Armailhac
- Château Batailley
- Château Belgrave
- Château Cantemerle (added as a Fifth Growth in 1856)
- Château Clerc-Milon
- Château Cos Labory
- Château Croizet Bages
- Château Dauzac
- Château de Camensac
- Château du Tertre
- Château Grand-Puy-Ducasse
- Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste
- Château Haut-Bages-Libéral
- Château Haut-Batailley
- Château Lynch-Bages
- Château Lynch-Moussas
- Château Pédesclaux
- Château Pontet-Canet
As you can see, there were few modifications to this Napoleonic classification after it was released and only two of significance. The reclassification of Château Mouton-Rothschild marks the only time a château has moved up in status and the addition of Château Cantemerle marks the only time a château has joined the elite.
This organizational benchmark has proven its worth through the years. It’s guided would be importers of the 1850s just as much as it’s guided would be consumers today as to the respective quality the châteaux. Have some chateaux improved? Of course. Are some non-classified châteaux making better wines than some classified growths? Sure. However the overall brilliance of this framework is its continued relevance and how it’s taken something that could’ve been quite confusing and made it brilliantly simple.
*Part of this project was also the classification of the white wines of the Médoc, namely from the Sauternes and Barsac region. This classification is of lesser importance for this article, however it is worth being aware of.
** Phylloxera is a louse that is native to North America. In the 1850s it was brought to Europe for research and in the 1860s it spread rapidly nearly destroying the French wine industry.
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