Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 first listed (1855)

The Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 was created for the Exposition Universelle de Paris at the request of Emperor Napoleon III. It ranked wines from first to fifth growths based on price, covering Médoc reds and Sauternes-Barsac sweet wines. The list was published on April 18, 1855.

Episodes

Background and detail

Background. Emperor Napoleon III requested a classification system for France's best Bordeaux wines to be displayed for international visitors at the 1855 Exposition Universelle de Paris. This initiative resulted in the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification, which ranked wines into five categories according to price, covering red wines of Médoc and sweet wines of Sauternes-Barsac.

Methodology. The wines were ranked in importance from first to fifth growths (crus). Within each category, châteaux were ordered by quality. The classification was based on price, distinguishing between red wines using 'second cru' and white wines using 'deuxième cru'.

Publication. The 19th-century names appear as listed by the brokers on April 18, 1855. Since 1855, only five of the estates were styled with the word 'château' in their name, though most Bordeaux wine estates now use this nomenclature.

People involved

Sources

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.