Michelin’s 2025 announcement that it would begin rating wine estates was met with more skepticism than fanfare within the wine business, and its inaugural list of 94 Burgundy estates is already causing drama. My initial question when the move was announced was, “Who is this for?” If anything, last week’s release has only made that question harder to answer. Rankings are a fraught business at the best of times, and trying to maneuver through the Côte d’Or without tripping over a sacred cow makes the task nearly impossible. Still, as a card-carrying Burgundy lover, I can’t help diving into the list to offer a few thoughts. First, let’s look at the criteria.
Five Criteria, Three Grapes
Michelin outlined five criteria in its December 2, 2025, press release: Quality of Agronomy, Technical Mastery, Identity, Balance, and Consistency. Each was further defined in one or two sentences, though still rather vaguely. Quality of Agronomy mentions “soil vitality, vine balance, and vineyard management”, but does not delineate recommended or forbidden techniques, and the awards include both thoughtful growers and more industrial operations. Technical Mastery specifically calls for wines that reflect terroir and grape variety “without any distracting flaws”, but those flaws are not outlined. Even a cursory reading of the awards reveals that reduction and the influence of Brettanomyces are not considered flaws by the inspectors.
Consistency is a tricky concept in Burgundy, where there is often a trade-off between the smoothed-out consistency of a large négociant, which sacrifices potential highs and lows alike, and the riskier proposition of a micro-estate, which can’t hide behind contract fruit sourced across a wide area or expensive winery interventions. The guide’s definition also mentions consistency in the cellar, making evaluation an even trickier and more expensive proposition, and seems to create an uneven playing field between established and nascent producers.
Importantly, Michelin is characteristically opaque about its methods, offering only platitudes about “seasoned wine specialists” and “rigor and integrity”. Perhaps this is essential to prevent the gaming of the system, but after exposés like Pascal Rémy’s 2004 book L’Inspecteur se met à table, these phrases do little to inspire confidence. After inspection (one wonders how many inspectors were employed to evaluate the 3,000+ producers in Burgundy alone), the winners were arranged into four categories that mirror Michelin’s restaurant ratings with the omission of the Green Star and Bib Gourmand: Three Grapes, Two Grapes, One Grape, and Selected.
Three Grapes
The usual suspects of DRC, Leroy, and d’Auvenay are no surprise here, nor is Roumier. Coche-Dury’s market prices arguably justify its inclusion, though my own tasting experiences have consistently fallen short of the hype. But that is where the usual suspects end and the oddities begin. Hubert Lamy and Cécile Tremblay are insider favorites, and though I didn’t expect them in the Three Grape category, I’m not mad about it. Jean-Marc & Thomas Bouley is quite a deep cut, and despite my love for Volnay (one of the things the guide got right was awarding liberally in this underappreciated village), I can’t justify this one. Great wines, to be sure, but elevating this producer above others even in its own village seems arbitrary at best.
The final recipient, Dugat-Py, has caused the most chatter among the trade and collectors. The guide even calls out the recent style change away from the heavy tannin extraction and lavish oak that were this domaine’s hallmarks pre-2015. One wonders how such a marked change squares with the “Consistency” criterion, but that isn’t even the main point. When Denis Mortet sits at Two Grapes, Armand Rousseau at One, and Fourrier merely Selected (to mention only those making wine in the same village as Dugat-Py), the Dugat-Py wines simply don’t justify this choice. I could understand snubbing Gevrey entirely within the Three Grape category (my own Rousseau notes read similarly to those on Coche-Dury), but if you’re going to include a winery from Gevrey, this isn’t the one.
Two Grapes
There are fewer glaring deficiencies in the Two Grape section, though it reads a bit like an AI mash-up of very different lists. A few estates, notably Paul Pillot and Jean-Marc Vincent, though dependable and delicious, are a bit of a stretch to place above, say, PYCM (a One Grape recipient) or Ramonet (merely Selected). Others, like the Ente brothers, make so little wine that one marvels at the inspectors’ ability to access enough back vintages to evaluate cellar consistency. My own notes on Bonneau du Martray do not justify this high a placement, but I know its fans are legion.
That said, many of the Two Grape finishes are fully justified: Dujac, Bruno Clair (too often given less than its due), Comtes Lafon, Leflaive, and Sauzet are all where I probably would have put them. While I appreciate the inclusion of two Côte Chalonnaise producers, including the massively underappreciated Bruno Lorenzon, I’m not sure this was the section to do it. Given the field, One Grape nods may have been more appropriate.
One Grape
This is where things get – well, “messy” is almost too nice a word. Thirty-three estates were awarded One Grape status, and the list reads like it hasn’t been sorted yet. Rousseau and Méo-Camuzet sit next to Château de la Tour and Louis Jadot. Henri & Gilles Buisson (another dependable but rarely superlative producer) receives One Grape while Fourrier, Lignier, and Ramonet languish in Selected. Dugat-Py receiving Three Grapes can at least be interpreted as intentionally provocative. This section just looks confused. That is not to say it hasn’t caused a stir. Florence Arnoux-Lachaux and Charles Lachaux of Arnoux-Lachaux have already asked to be removed from the One Grape list, posting on Instagram, “We do not know how the Domaine’s rating, reportedly based on five criteria, could have been established, as we have not received Michelin or presented our wines to the press since the 2020 vintage.”
Credit where credit is due, though. With 33 shots on goal, a few are bound to go in. Ghislaine Barthod, Bernard-Bonin, Marquis d’Angerville, and Michel Lafarge are all excellent and probably placed correctly. Domaine des Lambrays receiving One Grape casts further doubt on Dugat-Py’s Three Grape finish, as their stories look remarkably similar: from big, chewy, and heavily oaked to more elegant and nuanced in recent vintages.
Selected
This catch-all section is as jumbled as the One Grape list. It is probably the right place for, say, up-and-comers like Bachelet-Monnot, who are turning out exciting, classically styled wines, but need more time for their cellar consistency to be established. The outright snubs have mostly been mentioned by this point. Fourrier, Hubert Lignier, and Ramonet are the most egregious, but even placing a producer like Jacques Carillon this low is hard to defend when Paul Pillot received Two Grapes. Other inclusions smell of politics, as if Michelin were throwing a bone to Albert Bichot and Bouchard.
When you already have a three-tier Grape scale for established estates, what is the purpose of the Selected section? With no Bib Gourmand equivalent, this section might have served to highlight relatively unknown producers who are showing great promise but don’t yet have established back-vintage catalogs. But including large négociants and legendary domaines alongside rising stars like Maxime Cottenceau only confuses this afterthought of a category.
Notably Absent
With so many well-known domaines, outright omissions were inevitable, but a few stand out as particularly notable. In Vosne-Romanée, Liger-Belair, Anne Gros, and Emmanuel Rouget are all missing. Nuits-Saint-Georges coverage should certainly have included Henri Gouges, Domaine de l’Arlot, and Robert Chevillon. Despite the Côte de Beaune receiving nearly twice as many awards as the Côte de Nuits, Jean-Philippe Fichet and Comte Armand are nowhere to be found.
Staying in One’s Lane
You knew I couldn’t resist at least one car pun. What are we to make of this list? Should the selections be viewed as a French perspective that balances the hype around certain producers in the American secondary market? Or does the ranking stink of inconsistency and politics? Or perhaps the entire project of categorizing Burgundian estates this way is flawed? Drop us a line with your thoughts.