What is meant by 'first growth', 'second growth' and so on?

What is meant by 'first growth', 'second growth' and so on?

Dennis Overstreet (Wine Expert) gives expert video advice on: What is Appellation of Origin?; Why is Champagne an Appellation of Origin?; What French wine classification terms should I know? and more...

There's always the question of "What's a first growth? What's a second growth? What's a fifth growth?" And it's confusing. It used to be confusing even to myself, "Well, Fifth growth? Who grew that fifth?" Whatever. There was a classification in eighteen hundred and fifty-five by Napoleon, the Primo Wine, and it was based on the very same situation. Merchandising. Who sells for the top dollar? Who, if I invited to dinner tonight, if I had Barbra Streisand here, and Warren Beatty, who would come? Everyone would come. If I went to the next tier, and said, okay, I'm going to have Charlie Sheen here, well... Nicholas Cage, well... But if I had George Clooney, oh, that would be a first growth. The second growth would be the B group, the next growth would be the C. So, first, second, third, fourth, fifth. It all had to do with a financial thing, and drawing power.