2eme Grand Cru Classe Wines

A 2eme grand cru classe is a Second Growth of the Médoc — the second tier of Bordeaux’s legendary 1855 classification, and the part of that hierarchy where classified-growth quality stays within reach of a normal cellar budget. Known in English as second growth Bordeaux, these fourteen châteaux sit immediately below the five First Growths, yet in great vintages the best of them approach First Growth quality at a fraction of the price — roughly half to two-thirds of what their loftier neighbours command. Tour de Wine’s curated 2eme grand cru classe selection brings together eleven bottles from across the Médoc — Pauillac, Saint-Julien, Margaux and Saint-Estèphe — chosen for provenance, condition and drinking pleasure, with prices from €65 to €8,800. Whether you are buying your first classified growth or filling a gap in a maturing cellar, with a median bottle at €160 in our selection, this is where classified-growth quality becomes a realistic everyday purchase.

The 1855 Classification — Where the Second Growths Sit

The 1855 Médoc Classification was commissioned by Napoleon III for the Paris Universal Exhibition. Bordeaux brokers were asked to rank the region’s most sought-after estates, and they did so on a single, brutally honest basis: the prices the wines had fetched over decades of trade. Sixty-one châteaux were sorted into five tiers — Premiers Crus through Cinquièmes Crus Classés — and the result has proved astonishingly durable. The fourteen Deuxièmes Crus Classés form the second rung, the bordeaux 1855 classification second growth tier. In nearly seventeen decades the entire system has changed only once, when Mouton Rothschild was elevated from Second to First Growth in 1973. For a buyer, that near-total stability is the point: a deuxieme grand cru classe has held its rank against every market and every fashion since the wine trade was a fraction of its modern size. To see how the classified growths fit together, explore our wider range of Grand Cru wines.

The 14 Châteaux — Communes and Appellations

The fourteen Second Growths are not scattered at random. They cluster in four of the Médoc’s greatest communes, and knowing the geography is the single most useful thing a buyer can learn about the tier. Each commune leaves an unmistakable signature in the glass, so choosing between estates often comes down to choosing between appellations of Bordeaux wines. Grouped by commune, the Deuxièmes Crus Classés are:

• Pauillac (2): Château Pichon Longueville Baron and Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande
• Saint-Julien (5): Château Léoville Las Cases, Château Léoville Poyferré, Château Léoville Barton, Château Gruaud-Larose and Château Ducru-Beaucaillou
• Margaux (5): Château Rauzan-Ségla, Château Rauzan-Gassies, Château Brane-Cantenac, Château Durfort-Vivens and Château Lascombes
• Saint-Estèphe (2): Château Cos d’Estournel and Château Montrose

Five of these estates are widely regarded as “super seconds” — the tier’s First Growth-rivalling elite, covered in detail below.

Pauillac and Saint-Julien Second Growths

Pauillac’s two Second Growths are the rival Pichons, facing one another across the D2 road and sharing the same gravelly plateau as Latour and Lafite. They are structured, Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant wines built for the long haul. Saint-Julien contributes five — the three Léovilles, Gruaud-Larose and Ducru-Beaucaillou — and these form the backbone of an appellation prized for balance and polish. Less austere than Pauillac, Saint-Julien Second Growths are elegantly tannic and often approachable within eight to twelve years, which makes them a natural first step into the tier.

Margaux and Saint-Estèphe Second Growths

Margaux’s five Second Growths — Rauzan-Ségla, Rauzan-Gassies, Brane-Cantenac, Durfort-Vivens and Lascombes — deliver the appellation’s signature aromatic finesse, with silkier tannins and, in some estates, a higher Merlot share that brings earlier accessibility. Saint-Estèphe’s pair are the muscle of the tier: Cos d’Estournel, whose Orientalist, pagoda-topped chai was built in the 1830s by founder Louis Gaspard d’Estournel — who traded extensively with the East and crowned the building with carved wooden doors reputedly brought from the palace of the Sultan of Zanzibar, making it the most architecturally distinctive winery in the Médoc — and Montrose. Both are powerful and firmly tannic, frequently needing ten to twenty years to unwind fully. Cos d’Estournel is unusual in the tier for also producing a rare white Bordeaux bottling alongside its grand vin.

Grapes and Styles — What to Expect in the Glass

Across the fourteen châteaux, Cabernet Sauvignon is the dominant grape, typically making up 55–80% of the blend, with Merlot as the principal partner at roughly 15–35%. Smaller measures of Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and, occasionally, Malbec round out the assemblage. The proportions track the terroir: Pauillac and Saint-Estèphe lean heavily on Cabernet Sauvignon for structure and longevity, while Margaux blends often carry more aromatic Cabernet Franc, and a handful of estates — Lascombes in recent vintages among them — have moved toward higher Merlot for early charm. Expect a core of dark fruit — blackcurrant, plum, dark cherry — framed by cedar, tobacco and graphite, evolving with age toward leather, cigar box and truffle. Top Second Growths from great vintages will cellar gracefully for fifteen to thirty years.

The “Super Seconds” — Second Growth Bordeaux That Rivals First Growths

Within the tier sits a recognised elite the trade calls the “super seconds.” It is not an official sub-classification — there is no document, no committee, no decree. It is a market verdict, reinforced by critics and by the prices these estates command at auction, that their wines in top vintages are essentially indistinguishable from First Growths while selling at a meaningful discount. Cos d’Estournel, Léoville Las Cases, Ducru-Beaucaillou, Pichon Comtesse de Lalande and Montrose are the names most often cited among the bordeaux classified growths, and each can point to a measurable benchmark. Léoville Las Cases earned a perfect 100 points from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate for its 2016, and the same estate’s 2009 was likewise awarded 100. Cos d’Estournel’s 2009 took 100 points from Wine Advocate, while its 2016 was rated 100 by James Suckling. Montrose holds back-to-back Wine Advocate 100-point scores for the 2009 and 2010 vintages. Pichon Comtesse de Lalande was awarded 100 points by Wine Advocate for its 2016, and Ducru-Beaucaillou’s 2016 was scored 100 by James Suckling. These are the perfect marks usually reserved for First Growths — yet the bottles remain well below First Growth prices, as our own €65 to €8,800 spread makes plain. For a buyer, the logic is compelling: a super second from a benchmark year such as 2016, 2019 or 2022 closes most of the qualitative distance to a First Growth at something like half to two-thirds of the price. Across the tier, our own selection reflects that spread — super seconds and prestige formats sit at the upper end of the €65–€8,800 range, while the median bottle remains a far more accessible €160.

Great Vintages for Second Growth Bordeaux

Vintage matters as much as château in the Médoc. These reference years are widely regarded as strong for Second Growth Bordeaux, spanning bottles to lay down and bottles drinking beautifully now:

• 2022: a hot, drought-marked growing season that nonetheless delivered ripe yet fresh wines across all communes; Léoville Las Cases and Montrose were both rated 99–100 by James Suckling. Built for mid-term cellaring, drinking from around 2030.
• 2019: structured and fresh, particularly successful in Pauillac and Saint-Julien; the Pichon pair and the Léovilles were among the standout Second Growths, several scoring 98+ from Wine Advocate.
• 2016: one of the greatest recent Left Bank vintages, defined by a wet spring then a dry, even summer. Léoville Las Cases and Pichon Comtesse de Lalande both achieved perfect 100-point scores from Wine Advocate, with Ducru-Beaucaillou awarded 100 by James Suckling.
• 2015: an especially strong year for Margaux; Rauzan-Ségla and Brane-Cantenac stood out as best-value picks in the commune, both showing the appellation’s silk and lift.
• 2010: powerful and classic, the decade’s benchmark alongside 2009; Montrose earned a 100-point Wine Advocate score, matching its perfect 2009 and underlining Saint-Estèphe’s strength that year.
• 2005: a modern Médoc reference now at peak drinking for most Second Growths, with the Pauillac pair — the two Pichons — showing superb development and still-fresh fruit.

Younger vintages are still resting in the cellar, while many older years are available through allocation — ask if you are seeking a specific bottle.

Food Pairings and How to Serve

A Second Growth Médoc is built for the table. Serve it at 16–18 °C, taking care not to let the bottle drift too warm in a heated room. Young wines under ten years old open up beautifully with 1.5–2 hours in a wide-bottomed decanter; bottles aged 10–15 years — the most common scenario around the €160 median — typically want 45–60 minutes, tasting after the first pour to judge how much further opening they need; mature bottles of fifteen years and more often need only 30–45 minutes, or none at all if the fruit is fragile. For pairing, lean into the classics of the Médoc:

• Roasted rack of lamb with rosemary and garlic — the textbook Médoc match, suiting any commune in the tier.
• Duck breast with cherry or fig sauce and mushroom risotto pair best with the silkier, higher-Merlot Margaux Second Growths, whose finer tannins flatter softer, gamey textures.
• The firmer Saint-Estèphe pair, Cos d’Estournel and Montrose, need fat to open up their tannic structure: serve them with bone-in rib-eye or beef entrecôte with a red wine reduction.
• Saint-Julien Second Growths, balanced between the two, take happily to roast beef or a peppered fillet.
• Hard aged cheeses such as 24-month Comté or aged Cantal suit mature bottles, where the tannins have softened toward earthy, tertiary character.

How to Choose and Buy 2eme Grand Cru Classe — Prices and What to Expect

One question dominates for newcomers: what does a Second Growth actually cost? In Tour de Wine’s selection, prices start from around €75 at the tenth percentile, with the lowest-priced bottles beginning at €65 — typically younger vintages or smaller formats that make an accessible first encounter with a genuinely classified growth. The median bottle sits near €160, a realistic and serious starting point for a cellar addition. From there the range opens steadily, reaching €2,400 at the ninetieth percentile and up to €8,800 for the rarest cuvées and prestige formats. The value logic is straightforward: a Second Growth from a respected commune and vintage at around the €160 median offers a categorically different experience from an everyday Bordeaux rouge, and a substantial saving against First Growth equivalents — bottles in our 1er Cru selection begin considerably higher. For the full picture of how the tiers relate, browse our wine classifications hub, where each level of the 1855 hierarchy is set out side by side. If even the median feels like a stretch, almost every Second Growth also makes a second wine — La Dame de Montrose, Réserve de la Comtesse, La Croix de Beaucaillou, Sarget de Gruaud-Larose — that shares the grand vin’s terroir and winemaking team at roughly 30–50% of the price; ask our team about availability. Ready to buy? Browse the curated bottles below, or contact our team for allocation of older vintages and rare formats held off the main list.