The 1855 Bordeaux Classification: How It Was Drawn Up and What Has Changed

How the list was drawn up

Paris held a Universal Exposition in 1855, and Emperor Napoleon III wanted the wines of the Gironde to be presented there. The Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce gave the job of ranking them to the Syndicat des Courtiers de Commerce, the brokers who traded on the Bordeaux exchange. Their list was published on 18 April 1855.

The brokers ranked the wines by each château's reputation and by the prices its wine fetched, which their trade had followed for years. Those prices came from a market that had been taking shape for more than a century, and they reflected the recognised quality of each growth's terroir and its renown. Today the classified estates are represented by the Conseil des Grands Crus Classés en 1855.

So the classification is a merchants' ranking of named châteaux. It is neither a tasting score nor a map of vineyards, and both points matter later in this article.

Five growths of red wine, three levels of sweet wine

The red-wine list has five tiers, from First Growth (Premier Cru) to Fifth Growth (Cinquième Cru). The Conseil's current list has 61 châteaux: 5 First Growths, 14 Second Growths, 14 Third Growths, 10 Fourth Growths and 18 Fifth Growths. All but one are in the five Médoc appellations of Saint-Estèphe, Pauillac, Saint-Julien, Margaux and Haut-Médoc; the exception is Haut-Brion in the Graves.

The sweet-wine list covers Sauternes and Barsac. Château d'Yquem alone is ranked Premier Cru Supérieur (Superior First Growth), above 11 First Growths and 15 Second Growths, making 27 châteaux in all.

These are today's totals. The original list of 1855 ranked 58 red-wine châteaux and 21 sweet wines (FINE+RARE). Château Cantemerle was added to the Fifth Growths in 1856, and the totals above are those of the Conseil's list today.

Two wines published on Maison Apéro sit at different levels of the same list: Château Margaux is a First Growth in the Margaux appellation, and Château Calon-Ségur a Third Growth in Saint-Estèphe.

Haut-Brion: the one red wine from outside the Médoc

Of the 61 red wines, only Château Haut-Brion lies outside the Médoc. It is in Pessac, in the Graves, and its appellation today is Pessac-Léognan.

Its reputation was far older than the list. On 10 April 1663 the London diarist Samuel Pepys wrote that he had drunk “a sort of French wine called Ho Bryan, that hath a good and most particular taste that I never met with”.

Because the brokers ranked by reputation and price rather than by district, an estate from the Graves could stand beside the leading Médoc châteaux. Haut-Brion was ranked a First Growth in 1855.

Two changes since 1855

The list has changed very little. In 1856 Château Cantemerle, in the Haut-Médoc, was added to the Fifth Growths.

The only change of rank came in 1973. Château Mouton Rothschild in Pauillac, a Second Growth in 1855, became a First Growth by a decree signed by Jacques Chirac, then Minister of Agriculture, after a long campaign by Baron Philippe de Rothschild. The new rank applies from the 1973 vintage, and the estate adopted the motto “Premier je suis, second je fus, Mouton ne change” (First I am, second I was, Mouton does not change).

In 2026 the list is 171 years old, and these remain the only two changes to the red-wine ranking.

A rank for a château, not for a parcel

The 1855 list ranks châteaux by name. It does not draw boundaries around vineyard parcels.

Burgundy is organised differently. Its best-known names are climats: small, precisely delimited vineyard parcels on the slopes of the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune, inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2015.

For a reader the difference is practical. A Bordeaux classified growth on a label tells you which estate made the wine and how the brokers ranked that estate in 1855; it does not tell you where each vine grows. Our article on Bordeaux's left and right banks looks at the soils behind the names.

The terroir behind the names, and what the list leaves out

Three of the five First Growths, Lafite Rothschild, Latour and Mouton Rothschild, are in Pauillac. In Pauillac, terraces of gravel run parallel to the Gironde estuary at 3 to 30 metres above sea level, and these Quaternary deposits, about 10 metres thick on average, almost entirely cover Eocene and Oligocene marls and limestone. Together, the many gravelly slopes, their exposures, the nearness of the estuary and the free-draining soils favour viticulture of very high quality.

These soil facts belong to the appellation, not to the 1855 list. Terroir entered the ranking only indirectly, through each growth's reputation and price; the list itself contains no soil data.

The list also leaves most of Bordeaux out. Its red wines come from the five Médoc appellations and one estate in the Graves, its sweet wines from Sauternes and Barsac. Saint-Émilion, Pomerol and the rest of the region are outside it.

Exercise 1: the basis of the 1855 list

Question:
On what basis did the Bordeaux brokers rank the wines in 1855, and why does Haut-Brion, a Graves estate, appear among the First Growths of a list otherwise drawn from the Médoc?

Model answer:
Napoleon III wanted the wines of the Gironde presented at the 1855 Paris Universal Exposition, so the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce asked the brokers of the Bordeaux exchange to rank them. The brokers ranked by each château's reputation and trading price, and published the list on 18 April 1855. Haut-Brion, in Pessac in the Graves, had a long-established reputation (Samuel Pepys drank “Ho Bryan” in London in 1663), and on those criteria it stood with the leading Médoc estates, so it was ranked a First Growth.

Self-check (Maison's own points; not an official exam marking scheme):
- The occasion, and who drew up the list
- The criteria: reputation and trading price
- Haut-Brion's location, and the evidence for its reputation

Exercise 2: what has changed, and what a rank describes

Question:
Describe the changes made to the red-wine ranking since 1855, and explain how a Bordeaux classified growth differs from a Burgundy climat.

Model answer:
There have been two changes. Château Cantemerle was added to the Fifth Growths in 1856, and in 1973 Château Mouton Rothschild was promoted from Second to First Growth by a decree signed by Jacques Chirac, then Minister of Agriculture. Today the list holds 61 red wines: 5 First, 14 Second, 14 Third, 10 Fourth and 18 Fifth Growths. A Bordeaux rank is attached to a named château; a Burgundy climat is a precisely delimited vineyard parcel, so its name refers to a place rather than to an estate.

Self-check (Maison's own points; not an official exam marking scheme):
- Both changes, with their dates
- Today's structure of the red-wine list
- The difference between a ranked château and a delimited parcel