For 125 years, the MICHELIN Guide has rewarded places and talents that embody excellence in gastronomy and hospitality, with the MICHELIN stars created in 1926 and MICHELIN keys launched in 2024.
This experience of selection now naturally extends to wine, an essential reference in the gastronomic experience. The MICHELIN Guide has long highlighted exceptional wine lists and sommeliers, notably through the “wine” pictogram created in 2004 to distinguish quality pairings.
In 2019, the MICHELIN Sommelier Prize recognize professionals whose talent enhances the dining experience through exemplary wine selection and service. The MICHELIN Grape, the Guide’s new distinctionwill now spotlight wineries from different regions of the world, evaluating their overall excellence according to five universal criteria, applied uniformly.
“Having guided foodies to the best restaurants in more than 70 exceptional destinations and accommodations around the world, the MICHELIN Guide is pleased to open a new chapter with the world of wine. This new reference is aimed at both curious neophytes and passionate experts, and highlights the women and men who, all over the world, are talented and demanding to shape the wine estates of today and tomorrow,” declares Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the MICHELIN Guide.
The MICHELIN Grape: a new reference for discovering and celebrating the talents of wine
In the world of wine, the MICHELIN Guide will reward not only the wine estates, but also and above all the professionals who give them life: winegrowers, cooperatives, associations, parent companies… With this distinction, the Guide wishes highlight unique stories, knowledge passed down from generation to generationas well as new, resolutely innovative approaches and contemporary practices, evaluated according to a strict and independent methodology.
The MICHELIN Guide now offers wine lovers a reliable reference: 1, 2 or 3 Grape Varieties and, in addition, a selection of recommended estates.
Three grapes: Exceptional producers. Whatever the vintage, wine lovers can fully trust the estate’s production.
Two grapes: Producers of excellence, distinguished by their uniqueness within their terroir, both by their quality and their regularity.
A grape: High quality producers who produce wines with character and style, particularly obtained in the best vintages.
Recommended: Trusted producers, selected for their consistency, whose well-made wines promise a quality experience.
A methodology that revolves around 5 criteria
Guided by the fundamental values of excellence and independence, the MICHELIN Guide applies five criteria uniformly across the world to award its new distinction.
- Quality of agronomy: The evaluation focuses on the health of the soil, the balance of the vines and the care given to the vineyard. All these factors are essential and directly influence the quality of the wine.
- Technical area: The assessment focuses on the technical level of the winemaking process. The inspectors look for rigorous and well-executed vinification, reflecting the terroir and the grape variety, without defects altering its expression.
- Identify: The Guide values winemakers who create wines capable of expressing the personality, place and culture that shaped them.
- Balance: Evaluation of the harmony between acidity, tannins, wood, alcohol and sweetness.
- Constancy: The wines are evaluated over several vintages to check their consistency, even within the year.
Experience at the center of evaluations
Future selections will be based on the experience of specialist wine inspectors, all professionals and employees of the Michelin group. This team, which formulates its recommendations in a collegial and completely independent manner, will be composed of wine sector specialists and new inspectors specially incorporated for this mission.
Each member of this international team will be selected not only for their qualifications, but also for its ability to evaluate wine estates around the world with rigor, independence and integrity. Former sommeliers, specialist critics or production experts, all from the sector, these professionals have specific and in-depth experience of the sector. Future selections will reflect the excellence and consistency of the areas recognized by the MICHELIN Guide.
In 2026, the MICHELIN grape variety will write its first chapter in the heart of two legendary territories: Bordeaux and Burgundy
The MICHELIN Grape variety will take its first steps in two of the emblematic regions of the world wine scene: Bordeaux and Burgundy. A significant choice, celebrating the diversity, historical depth and cultural richness of French wine.
The Bordeaux region has established itself over the centuries as a historical reference in the world of wine. Its great wine estates and its reputation transcend our borders. Land of prestige and innovation, Bordeaux combines tradition and international influence.
Burgundy is distinguished by its an intimate and deeply rooted approach to heritage. Their family farms, on a human scale, bear witness to a tradition of rigor and dedication at each stage of the production process. Transmission and history shape local identity and make Burgundy famous throughout the world.
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