Much has been said about the shortcomings of the 1855 classification. Many call it outdated, and it certainly does not do justice to a lot of great wines from outside the Medoc, Graves and Sauternes. Still, at least the potential of the estates listed there has a surprising validity, and it seems to be forgotten or widely unknown that the official classification system created for the Paris world exhibition in 1855 was in practice not really the first of its kind, and is with a certain likeliness based on its predecessors used in wine trade for more than 100 years already, ranking the wines of Bordeaux by price fetched. These market-driven rankings show an amazing similarity to the 1855 classification, and most of todays most admired Chateaux, especially the premiers crus (though then partly known under somewhat different names) were consistently in the highest demand. True is as well that all attempts to reform the 1855 classification weren´t successful, with one notable exception, the (widely regarded as long deserved) promotion of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild into the rank of a premier cru by presidential decret in 1973.
Bordeaux Wine Classification