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The WORST Wine Classification Ever?!

Konstantin Baum - Master of Wine

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I have used the following glass from my partner Spiegelau in this video:
SPIEGELAU Definition Bordeaux Wine Glass: https://www.spiegelau.com/en-int/spie...

I have tasted the following wines in this Video:
2019 Au Sommet Atlas Peak Cabernet Sauvignon Napa USA
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/au...

I use this wine key: Forge de Laguiole Ebony

The 100 Point Scoring System (from www.robertparker.com):
96-100: An extraordinary wine of profound and complex character displaying all the attributes expected of a classic wine of its variety. Wines of this caliber are worth a special effort to find, purchase and consume.
90 - 95: An outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character. In short, these are terrific wines.
80 - 89: A barely above average to very good wine displaying various degrees of finesse and flavor as well as character with no noticeable flaws.
70 - 79: An average wine with little distinction except that it is soundly made. In essence, a straightforward, innocuous wine.
60 - 69: A below-average wine containing noticeable deficiencies, such as excessive acidity and/or tannin, an absence of flavor or possibly dirty aromas or flavors.
50 - 59: A wine deemed to be unacceptable.

Since its inception, the Michelin Guide has become the gold standard for rating Restaurants.
Receiving 1, 2, 3, or no Michelin Stars can make or break a chef's career.
However, ruling the restaurant rating market was not enough for Michelin, so they recently released their ratings for two of the most famous wine regions, and the results are puzzling, making some of us wonder whether this is the worst wine classification in History?
In summer, Michelin first released its Burgundy Classification, then “reclassified” Bordeaux, and people don't understand what they are doing.
Some famous estates were left out of the classification, and others were rated lower than expected, which puzzled the wine industry.
The problem is not that their classification disagrees with the 1855 hierarchy; if Michelin simply copied 1855, the exercise would have little purpose.
But the big unanswered questions are: How did Michelin arrive at these results? What exactly is being rated? How useful is the rating to a wine consumer?
So let's first look at what the classification is actually trying to achieve.
The Michelin decided that they should apply their existing three-tier structure to wine.
The 2026 Bordeaux inaugural selection includes 83 estates in Michelin’s corporate release — 9 with 3 Grapes, 16 with 2, 37 with 1, and 21 Selected.
The big problem is that the details on the methodology are quite murky
Five stated criteria: quality of agronomy; technical mastery; identity; balance; consistency.
Michelin says assessments are made by dedicated wine professionals, and recommendations are reached collectively.
Balance, identity and consistency can at least be explored through tasting (with consistency requiring multiple vintages).
Agronomy and technical mastery raise harder questions about definition, measurement, weighting and comparability.
You might wonder now: Does Michelin even have the people on board who would be able to do that?

20 Comments

@KonstantinBaumMasterofWine Creator 11 days ago Pinned

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@windowintowineoninstagram5463 10 days ago

It’s like scoring Goldman Sachs by the quality of their laptops

@MarryMeryme 10 days ago

Michelin seems to confuse consistency with standardization. Burgundy is not about making every vintage taste the same; it is about consistently expressing the vineyard, the season, and the producer’s hand with honesty.

If this is a guide to winery visits or technical management, fine. But as a ranking of Burgundy producers, the omissions, the odd placements, and even the inconsistent naming make it feel very disconnected from how Burgundy lovers actually think. Burgundy is not a hotel chain — its beauty is in the variation.

@mausermann7918 10 days ago

Sounds like Michelin trying to stay relavant.

@AchillesMajor 10 days ago

I'd rather see a classification based on visitation experience to wineries for oenophiles; let us judge the wine quality; you (Michelin) go in advance & let us know if visiting that wine estate is average, above average, exceptional, etc... This would be helpful especially in smaller or less well known wine regions around the world.

@Pseudopimelodidae 10 days ago

Just like rating getting 3 Michelin starts tells you nothing about the style of the wine. Let’s take for example two 3 start burgundy producers Hubert Lamy and Domaine Coche-Dury. Both make white wine from Chardonnay in the same area but their styles are completely different. Lamy is a very lean and even avant-garde in his philosophy how a great burgundy white should taste and Coche-Dury on the other hand is a real traditionalist of the heavier Meursault style. You really need to go much deeper than a rating or classification and get to know the wines and the winemakers to make decisions on what wines fit your own pallet.

@shaunsandow2073 10 days ago

There’s enough ranking systems already - no more are needed 😊

@stenerline 10 days ago

So they build a shitty LLM on their Parker data + old dumb model = random shit happens

@glennjohnson4919 10 days ago (edited)

The quality of a winery is different from the quality of their wine? I’m confused. Even rating the experience at the winery is odd. Sometimes i just like the pourer, sometimes not.

@N-Kari 10 days ago

Loot boxes/gambling mechanics with wine, quite disturbing.

@williamrobinson7435 10 days ago

I'm a little troubled by the idea that La Tours could suffer reputational damage merely because they didn't finish the admin for Michelin.
Nice one Konstantin, most interesting! ✨🌟👍

@Nemosan01 10 days ago

Very interesting… can’t help to be concerned about a commercial angle…..

@chowd.a.d.8309 10 days ago

Thanks Konstantin. This is nuts, or very simple, the wine maker that gives most under the table gets 3 grapes, and so on.

@potsdam521 10 days ago

We can say the same of any taster that we don’t understand how they pondered each element of the wine, this remaking of the terroir classification makes lot of sense as lot of wineries have being since very long just getting a free ride because of the grand cru branding

@lariog31 10 days ago

Brilliant, brilliant video. Perhaps the best on the channel.

@ShadowOfMoria 7 days ago

Hey Konstatin, thanks for the great video. Have you ever considered doing a video on white Bordeaux or white Burgundy wines? Would be great to see something about them. I've really enjoyed the Bordeaux-varietals videos you've made.

@DrinkinItIn 10 days ago

Such a great analysis of the process, I appreciate you taking the time to produce the video (even though you beat me to the punch). I think the introduction of this rating system is completely unnecessary and super confusing. They could have been so much more creative and created something useful as the Bordeaux classifications are 'a bit old' and can use some modernization.

@peterlue9274 10 days ago (edited)

It just sounds like a shakedown to me. They seem to be trying to get perks for giving higher ratings. Giving Margaux and Mouton Rothschild 2 stars is criminal and they instantly lose all credibility.

@enthusiastic_amateur 10 days ago (edited)

Agree this is very strange, and confusing how it helps consumers. The one-star Burgundy is confounding. How is it that Rousseau, Meo-Camuzet, Roulot, Vogue are all a 1 star??

@marknelson8724 10 days ago

All I care about is what is in the glass. Wineries that give information about the vintage and what they did or were forced by the weather to do, are just more interesting to me. Generally, agronomy, soil health, technical mastery...that will tend to show up in the glass.