Ovid Ventures

The 1855 Classification of Bordeaux Wines

The legendary 1855 classification

established four four “First Growths” - the elegant Chateau Margaux and Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, the powerful Chateau Latour, and the earthy, sensual Chateau Haut-Brion.

Here’s how it happened. In 1855, Napoleon III asked Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce to rate their wines from best to worst for the Paris Universal Exhibition, a fair. Tasked with this difficult ask, the Chamber members ranked the chateaux based on one stark quantitative measure: how much the wines sold for, going from first growths to fifth growths. In all, sixty-one chateaux were classified. Importantly, the classification, was never to be revised. As you would expect, since that time, entire books have been written on the 1855 classification and the validity of its controversial rankings, and various wine exchanges have re-established the rankings based on modern-day prices.

A select list of the wines:

I. First Growths
Chateau Margaux, Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, Chateau Latour, Chateau Haut-Brion, Chateau Mouton-Rothschild

II. Second Growths
Chateau Leoville, Chateau Gruaud-Larose, Chateau Pichon Longueville, Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou, Chateau Cos d’Estournel, Chateau Montrose

III. Third Growths
Chateau Giscours, Chateau Palmer, Chateau Calon-Segur, Chateau Cantenac-Brown, Chateau La Lagune, Chateau Lagrance

IV. Fourth Growths
Chateau Talbot, Chateau Beychevelle, Chateau Saint-Pierre, Chateau Duhart-Millon, Chateau Lafon-Rochet

V. Fifth Growths
Chateau Pontet-Canet, Chateau Batailley, Chateau Lynch-Bages, Chateau Lynch-Moussas, Chateau Belgrave, Chateau de Camensac