Understanding Bordeaux's First Growths

If you've spent any time around fine wine, you've heard the phrase "First Growth" used like a badge of honour. But the term has a specific, almost bureaucratic origin — and knowing the story behind it makes the wines themselves far more interesting to drink.

Where the Term Comes From

In 1855, Emperor Napoleon III asked Bordeaux's wine brokers to rank the region's best estates for the Paris World's Fair. The brokers didn't taste anything — they simply ranked châteaux by the prices their wines had fetched at market over the preceding decades, on the theory that price was the most honest measure of reputation. The result was the 1855 Classification, which sorted 61 Left Bank estates into five tiers, or "growths." At the very top sat four estates, later joined by a fifth: the First Growths.

The Five

• Château Lafite Rothschild (Pauillac) — often the most perfumed and ethereal of the five, prized for extraordinary elegance and longevity.
• Château Latour (Pauillac) — the most powerful and structured, built on gravelly soil that gives famously age-worthy wines.
• Château Margaux (Margaux) — celebrated for silky texture and perfume; often described as the most "feminine" of the five, though the 2015 and 2016 vintages showed real muscle too.
• Château Mouton Rothschild (Pauillac) — rich and opulent, and the only First Growth to commission a different artist's original artwork for its label every single vintage.
• Château Haut-Brion (Pessac-Léognan) — the oldest of the five and the only one not in the Médoc, known for a distinctive smoky, gravelly character locals call "hot bricks."

Mouton Rothschild is the one exception worth knowing: it was originally ranked a Second Growth in 1855 and spent over a century lobbying for promotion, finally succeeding in 1973 — the only change ever made to the classification.

Why the Ranking Still Holds Up

A lot has changed in Bordeaux since 1855 — winemaking technique, climate, even which plots belong to which château. Critics have long argued the classification is overdue for a refresh. And yet, remarkably, the five First Growths have largely continued to justify their position at the top, vintage after vintage, for a century and a half. That kind of consistency is rare in any field, let alone one as dependent on weather as winemaking.

What to Actually Expect

All five share a few things in common: they're built on Cabernet Sauvignon-led blends (except Haut-Brion, which leans more toward Merlot in most vintages), they're made to age for decades rather than years, and they're produced in genuinely limited quantities relative to global demand — which is a large part of why they command the prices they do.

We currently carry a rotating selection from the First Growths, along with Château Ausone — one of only two estates classified Premier Grand Cru Classé A on the Right Bank, and arguably Bordeaux's other true peak. You can browse what's currently available in our Bordeaux First Growths collection, which updates automatically as new vintages come into the cellar.