Alexis Lichine's classification of Bordeaux wine

[1] Working for a reevaluation and change of structure of the classification of Bordeaux estates, he ended up spending much of his professional life on a campaign that lasted more than thirty years to accomplish a revision.

Investigations revealed to what extent parcels of land had exchanged hands, some were considered insignificant but in other cases important transfers of terrain had taken place.

Opting for three categories instead of five, removing 18 chateaux and adding 13 new ones with updates every five years provoked reactions of outrage among those who faced great loss, "Château owners demoted or entirely deleted… condemned the ranking as malicious, incompetent and unjust.

In agreement with the committee, Lichine believed that, just as the principal philosophy behind the 1855 classification, price would be the most reliable indicator, but a revision could not let the transfer of first-rate soil go unchallenged.

[4] It was also important to identify cases where highly classified estates had become surpassed by those rated Fifth Growth or Cru Bourgeois, and addressing the 1855 classification's neglect of properties from other areas than Médoc, namely those of Graves, Saint-Émilion and Pomerol.

[3] Never coming to fruition before Lichine's death, some of the reasons are believed to be the 1855 establishment's political muscle, prosperity and prospects, social status, market clout, professional and personal prestige and conservatism.