Bordeaux wine the subregions and two white based on sweetness: The vast majority of Bordeaux wine is red, with red wine production outnumbering white wine production six to one. There are four different classifications of Bordeaux, covering different parts of the region: The 1855 classification system was made at the request of Emperor Napoleon III for the Exposition Universelle de Paris. This came to be known as the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, which ranked the wines into five categories according to price. The first growth red wines (four from Médoc and one, Château Haut-Brion, from Graves), are among the most
History of Bordeaux wine 1205, King Alfonso VIII of Castile laid claim to Aquitaine and put Bordeaux under siege. The village was able to withstand the attack and King John rewarded the Bourgeois with orders for wine in excess of 120 tons. In 1224, King Louis VIII of France attempted to purge the English from French soil and was halted in his advance in the town of Bordeaux. In the aftermath Bordeaux received privileged access to the English market through London, and their exports to the market soon dwarfed the production from other French wine making regions. During the 13th century, the Graves was