Saint-Émilion Grand Cru vs Grand Cru Classé

A place, a rulebook, and a list

A Saint-Émilion (opens in a new tab) label can say 3 things about the wine’s standing, and they sit a word or 2 apart. Saint-Émilion is an appellation, the legally defined name of a place and its rules. Saint-Émilion Grand Cru is a second appellation on the same land, with stricter rules. Grand Cru Classé is a rank, held by a short list of estates inside that second appellation. The first 2 tell you how the wine was made. Only the third tells you who made it.

The 85 names in an appellation of 700 growers

Grand Cru Classé is not a third appellation. It is a rank inside Saint-Émilion Grand Cru, awarded by a classification that is torn up and rebuilt roughly every 10 years, and it has 3 tiers. The list approved in September 2022 holds 85 estates: 2 Premiers Grands Crus Classés A, 12 Premiers Grands Crus Classés B, and 71 Grands Crus Classés. It runs to the 2031 harvest, and then the whole thing is done again.

The 2022 round changed the top tier. Ausone (opens in a new tab) and Cheval Blanc (opens in a new tab) announced in July 2021 that they would not take part, and Angélus (opens in a new tab) followed in January 2022. On September 8, 2022, Figeac (opens in a new tab) was raised to Premier Grand Cru Classé A beside Pavie. The letter is never printed on a bottle: the label of an A or a B estate reads Premier Grand Cru Classé, nothing more.

So every classified growth is a Saint-Émilion Grand Cru, because the classification admits only wines made under that appellation. The reverse almost never holds: the Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux counts about 700 growers across the 2 appellations, and the list has 85 names. Grand Cru on its own promises stricter rules. It promises nothing about the estate.

Same land, 2 rulebooks

Saint-Émilion and Saint-Émilion Grand Cru cover the same 8 communes and part of Libourne. They are not a lesser and a greater place. They are 2 sets of rules, and the grower chooses between them at the declaration, after the harvest, when the wine is already in the vat.

Both cahiers des charges, each appellation’s official rulebook, were homologated on the same day, July 27, 2023. The grapes, the planting density of 5,500 vines a hectare and the land itself are identical. What Grand Cru costs the grower is about 1 bottle in 8 from every hectare, a riper grape and a longer wait before the wine can be sold.

The word that matters is Classé

Without it, Grand Cru is the appellation and speaks only of the rules the wine was made under. With it, the label is claiming a rank, and the phrase is regulated: the estate must be on the list in force. It cannot simply be printed at will.

The same 2 words, 2 unrelated ideas

In Burgundy Grand Cru is a vineyard rank; in Saint-Émilion the same 2 words are a set of yields and dates. The 2 regions borrowed one phrase for 2 unrelated ideas, and the overlap remains. A Burgundy Grand Cru names a piece of land. A Saint-Émilion Grand Cru names a rulebook, and the vineyard next door can follow it too.