Guide
What are the super seconds of Bordeaux?
A merchants’ phrase, not a rank. The Classification of 1855 has never ordered estates inside a tier, so the market does it instead.
The short answer
Second Growths of 1855 that sell well above the rest of their class, toward the price of the First Growths. It is a merchants’ phrase, not a rank, and nobody fixes its borders; a 2013 study names 5, from Léoville Las Cases to Cos d’Estournel, with Palmer, a Third Growth, counted in.
Whatever the trade says it is
No official body defines the group and no label prints it, so the list is whatever the trade says it is. The sociologist Pierre-Marie Chauvin (opens in a new tab), in a 2013 paper built on interviews with the Bordeaux trade, set down this list:
| Estate | Appellation | Rank of 1855 |
|---|---|---|
| Second Growth | ||
| Second Growth | ||
| Second Growth | ||
| Second Growth | ||
| Second Growth | ||
| Third Growth, usually counted in |
He added the most important caveat: the borders of the category are not stable, and producers work to move them. There are 14 Second Growths. Five are on the list; the other 9 hold the same rank and sell for less. Montrose (opens in a new tab), in
The phrase has nothing to do with second wines. Les Forts de Latour (opens in a new tab) is a second wine; Pichon Baron is a super second. The first is a selection inside an estate, the second a position in a price list.
Where the term comes from
From the merchants, not from any document. The Classification of 1855 (opens in a new tab) has never ranked estates inside a tier, and it has been formally changed only 2 times since 1855. A list that barely moves leaves the market to do the sorting, and the market’s word for a Second Growth that sells like a First is super second.
Why they sell above the rest
Because the class was always a price band, and prices kept moving after 1855. Estates of the same rank could stand at very different prices. The economists Albert Di Vittorio and Victor Ginsburgh indexed 29,911 lots sold at Christie’s from 1980 to 1992, with du Tertre (opens in a new tab), a Fifth Growth, at 100. On their index the Second Growths spread across a band more than 2 times wide, and Latour, Lafite Rothschild (opens in a new tab), and Mouton Rothschild (opens in a new tab) stood above 400.
The same index shows how the borders move. The 3 Léovilles, carved from one estate that was divided by 1840, stood apart on it, and only Léoville Las Cases is on Chauvin’s list.
What the term does not mean
It is not a promotion, and no label carries it. The brokers of 1855 ranked by price once; the super seconds are the same method, run by the market every year, with nobody to sign it. It is not permanent either: the group is a reading of prices, and prices move.
Where to go next
Sources: Pierre-Marie Chauvin, The Social Fabric of Prices, economic sociology, the european electronic newsletter, vol. 15, no. 1, November 2013 · A. Di Vittorio and V. Ginsburgh, Des enchères comme révélateurs du classement des vins. Les grands crus du