A list drafted in three weeks for a world’s fair, that has barely changed in 170 years.
In the spring of 1855, Napoléon III asked the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce to produce a ranking of the region’s wines for the Exposition Universelle in Paris. The chamber declined to taste anything; instead, they delegated the task to the Bordeaux Wine Brokers’ Association, who drafted the classification in roughly three weeks based on the prevailing market prices each château commanded.
The structure
Sixty-one châteaux of the Médoc were ranked into five tiers — Premier Cru (First Growth) down through Cinquième Cru — plus one Premier Cru from the Graves (Haut-Brion). One Sauternes classification was made simultaneously, with Yquem in its own tier above the Premier Crus. The Right Bank — Saint-Émilion and Pomerol — was excluded entirely.
What has changed
Almost nothing. There has been one promotion in 170 years: in 1973, Mouton Rothschild was elevated from Second Growth to First Growth, after decades of lobbying by Baron Philippe de Rothschild. The other 60 châteaux remain at the rank assigned in 1855, even where vineyard parcels and ownership have changed substantially.
What it means today
The classification is a snapshot of mid-19th-century market prices. It still correlates loosely with quality, partly because First Growths can fund the equipment and the talent to stay First Growths, but plenty of unclassified Crus Bourgeois and Saint-Émilion estates make wine that exceeds Cinquième Cru bottles costing five times more.
It remains, more than anything, a marketing achievement of historical durability — a list that succeeded by being almost impossible to revise.