Classification
The Crus Classés de Graves
One rank, no hierarchy, settled in 1959 and never revised. It ranks nothing except whether an estate is classified for red, for white, or for both.
What it is
The INAO drew up a classification of the Graves in 1953 and settled it by the decree of February 16, 1959. There is 1 rank, Cru Classé, and the only division in the list is what an estate is classified for: red, white, or both. No estate is above another. Haut-Brion, which is also a first growth of 1855, was allowed to keep printing Premier Grand Cru Classé through the 1981 vintage and has used Cru Classé de Graves since 1982.
How it moves
It does not, and it was never built to. The Union des Crus Classés de Graves calls 1959 a slight enlargement that brought no great changes, and Bordeaux.com calls it the one and only change. Nothing has been added or removed since, except by 2 estates disappearing into a third.
Where they are
Every classified growth of the Graves stands inside Pessac-Léognan, an appellation created by the decree of September 9, 1987, 28 years after the list was settled. That is why no classified growth of the Graves carries the word Graves on its label.
Every edition
4
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1953
The first list
A jury named by the INAO classified the wines of the Graves, and the minister of agriculture approved the list in August of the same year.
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1959 Decree of February 16, 1959
The one and only change
The list of 1953 is completed for the white wines and settled by decree. The estates date their rank to 1953; the decree of 1959 is the text in force.
16 estates and 22 wines. Nothing has been added or removed since.
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2006 2005 the last vintage
Château La Tour Haut-Brion stops
Domaine Clarence Dillon announced in April 2007 that from the 2006 vintage the fruit of La Tour Haut-Brion would go into La Chapelle de La Mission Haut-Brion. 2005 is its final vintage.
- Out Château La Tour Haut-BrionAbsorbed into Château La Mission Haut-Brion
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2009 2008 the last vintage
Château Laville Haut-Brion becomes La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc
Announced in March 2010: from the 2009 vintage the wine is labeled Château La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc. 2008 was the last under the old name, and the list falls from 16 estates to 14.
14 estates, 12 classified for their red wine and 9 for their white, 7 of them for both.
- Out Château Laville Haut-BrionNow Château La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc
The list today
14