THE CLASSIFICATION OF BORDEAUX WINES

Of all the Bordeaux classifications that exist, it is the 1855 Classification that is meant whenever anyone refers to “The Classification.” It was commissioned by the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce, which was required by the government of the Second Empire to present a selection of its wines at the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris. For their own ends, the brokers of the Bordeaux Stock Exchange traditionally categorized the most famous Bordeaux properties on the basis of the prices they fetched, so they were charged by the Chamber of Commerce to submit a “complete list of classified red Bordeaux wines, as well as our great white wines.” The classifications listed above and to the right give the 19th-century names in the original form as listed by the brokers on April 18, 1855. The frequent absence of the word château has been followed, as has the circumflex in crû, and the use of second crû for red wines and deuxième crû for whites.