The Liv-ex Bordeaux Classification

The Liv-ex Bordeaux Classification is a classification of Bordeaux wine compiled by the British internet and phone-based wine exchange,London International Vintners Exchange (Liv-ex) in March 2009, with an aim to recreate the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 in a modern economic context, 154 years after the original compilation. Two years later, the market has shifted and the classification has been updated to reflect current trading conditions in 2011.

Based entirely on the level of prices, with the criteria of wines to be from the Left Bank (including Pessac-Leognan) and be produced in quantities of more than 2,000 cases, and not taking into account any second wines, the Liv-ex classification lists 60 estates, one fewer than that of 1855. The tiers were sectioned by the First Growths in the range of £2,000 a case and above, the Second Growths from £500 to £2,000, the Third Growths from £300 to £500, the Fourth Growths from £250 to £300 and the Fifth Growths from £200 to £250. The price averages were calculated from the period 2005–2009.

Among the chief differences from the 1885 classification is the placement of Château La Mission Haut-Brion among the First Growths, Château Lynch-Bages elevated from the fifth tier to the second, Château Palmer promoted a tier to become the top Second Growth. Lafite retakes its position as the top wine of the Left Bank - a position it surrendered to Latour in 2009. Lower down the list, Duhart Milon, Beychevelle and Pontet Canet graduate to Second-Growth status. Leoville Barton drops down to become a Third Growth.

Jack Hibberd of Liv-ex stated that the second wines of the estates were a complicating factor, "They obviously didn’t exist in 1855, so we decided to classify each property on the basis of their first wine. It is interesting to note, however, that if they were included as separate chateaux, 12 would make the cut, with Carruades de Lafite and Forts de Latour reaching the level of second growths."

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