Guide
The 6 classifications of Bordeaux, and which can still change
1 has changed only 2 times in more than 170 years, 1 is rebuilt every 10 years and was once annulled by a court, and 1 scores the grower before it scores the wine.
The short answer
Bordeaux has 6 lists: the Classification of 1855, the Classification of Saint-Émilion, the Crus Classés de Graves, the Crus Bourgeois, the Crus Artisans and the MICHELIN Guide selection. 3 of them are rebuilt on a fixed cycle, 1 is editorial, and 2 have barely moved since they were made.
The 6, side by side
| List | Made by | Ranks | Rebuilt |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classification of 1855 | Brokers, for the Paris exhibition | 61 red growths of the Médoc and Graves, 27 sweet whites | 2 times in 171 years |
| Classification of Saint-Émilion | The state, through INAO | 85 estates in 3 ranks | Every 10 years, from nothing |
| Crus Classés de Graves | The Graves syndicate | 14 estates, no tiers | Settled in 1959 |
| Crus Bourgeois | The Alliance, verified by an outside body | 170 estates in 3 tiers | Every 5 years |
| Crus Artisans | The syndicate, verified by an outside body | 33 classifications over 32 estates | Every 5 years |
| MICHELIN Guide | Michelin, from outside the wine trade | 83 estates, 3 grapes down to 1 | As Michelin pleases |
The ones that cannot really move
The Classification of 1855 was drawn up from brokers’ price lists in April 1855 and has changed 2 times since: Cantemerle was added on September 16, 1855, 5 months after the first printing, and Mouton Rothschild was raised from second growth to first in 1973. Nothing else has changed in 171 years, and no mechanism exists to change it.
The Crus Classés de Graves settled into their present form in 1959. The list has 14 names today, 2 fewer than it had, because 2 estates were absorbed into a third. It has no ranks at all: an estate is classified for its red, its white or both, and that is the only division in it.
The ones that are rebuilt
The Classification of Saint-Émilion is the only classification of crus classés in Bordeaux that an estate can be thrown out of, and the only one where every estate has to apply again each time. It is also the one the courts have struck down: the classification of 2006 was annulled, the list of 1996 was kept in force by law until the 2011 harvest, and the revision of 2012 started again. The revision approved in September 2022 runs to the 2031 harvest. In that round 3 of the 4 estates holding the top rank refused to enter at all.
The Crus Bourgeois and the Crus Artisans both run on 5 year cycles and both are verified by an independent body rather than by the trade alone. The Crus Bourgeois list was annulled by a court in 2007 because 4 members of the jury were themselves candidates; what replaced it was not a classification of estates but a mention awarded to a lot of wine, vintage by vintage, and the ranks came back only in 2020.
And the one that is not a classification at all
The MICHELIN Guide published its first Bordeaux selection on September 8, 2026. No decree homologates it, no appellation carries it and no label may print it. It is an opinion, published by a body from outside the wine trade, and it crosses appellations that no French classification crosses.
Where to go next
Sources: Conseil des Grands Crus Classés en 1855 · INAO, the Saint-Émilion classification · Syndicat Viticole de Pessac-Léognan, the Crus Classés de Graves · Alliance des Crus Bourgeois du Médoc · Qualisud, the proclamation of the Crus Artisans du Médoc classification, May 12, 2023