First Growth

It is, by most measures, the most expensive Merlot on the planet and one of the most expensive wines, full stop.

It has no classification because its region famously refuses to rank its wine, it holds no official title like first growth, no Grand Cru, nothing, it doesn't even make a second wine, and it's built entirely on Merlot, the grape that wine snobs have spent decades sneering at.

This is Petrus, and the story of how a modest farm in swampy backwater outpriced the palaces of Bordeaux.

It involves a widow in legendary hats, a catastrophic frost, the Kennedy White House, a secret buried 40 million years ago, and recently, a trip to space.

By every rule of the Bordeaux game, a wine from here should have been cheap.

Madame Louba simply refused to play.

She priced Petrus at the level of the first growth.

Lafitte, Latour, Margaux.

And then there's Chateau Mouton Rothschild.

And then in terms of white wines, there's probably the most famous white wine in the world, which is, what do they call it? This is Premier Cru Superior.

So it's in its own super tier above all the other Premier Cru's, but that is Chateau de Chem, which is Sauternes.

These are all either going to be in Sauternes or Barsac, basically.

But Chateau Latour, Lafourie, you'll notice that there is a lot more people in the sweet wine world Really important to remember that in the 1850s, sweet wine was A, much higher and much more in demand on a global market, specifically in England, but B, much more limited in its ability to be produced because...

This is not a World War II history podcast, and I'm not really qualified to talk about that.

But most notably sort of in 1973, Mouton Rothschild moves from Dutschheim to Premier Crewe.

So now they own two of the premier two of the five premier crude vineyards in the world.