MICHELIN Grape Selection Burgundy: The Nine Top Estates

The Nine Three-Grape Estates

Nine estates hold the top tier. Two, Leroy and d'Auvenay, belong to Lalou Bize-Leroy. Each earns its place for different reasons.

Cécile Tremblay, Domaine Cécile Tremblay (Morey-Saint-Denis)

MICHELIN describes Cécile Tremblay as one of the few entirely new Côte de Nuits estates, founded in 2003. The domaine is based in Morey-Saint-Denis and receives Three Grapes in the inaugural selection.

Loïc Dugat-Py, Dugat-Py (Gevrey-Chambertin)

Dugat-Py is the Three-Grape estate in Gevrey-Chambertin. MICHELIN places it among five Côte de Nuits producers at the highest level.

Christophe Roumier, Domaine Georges Roumier (Chambolle-Musigny)

Domaine Georges Roumier represents Chambolle-Musigny in the Three-Grape group. Its inclusion is an estate-level distinction, not a score for one cru or vintage.

Bertrand de Villaine & Perrine Fenal, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (Vosne-Romanée)

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is co-directed by Perrine Fenal and Bertrand de Villaine. MICHELIN says the pair have led the estate since 2019 alongside technical director and cellar master Alexandre Bernier.

Lalou Bize-Leroy, Domaine Leroy (Vosne-Romanée)

Domaine Leroy in Vosne-Romanée is one of Lalou Bize-Leroy's two Three-Grape estates. MICHELIN specifically identifies her as a pioneer of biodynamic viticulture.

Lalou Bize-Leroy, Domaine d'Auvenay (Saint-Romain)

Domaine d'Auvenay in Saint-Romain is Lalou Bize-Leroy's second estate in the top tier. She is the only winegrower represented by two Three-Grape domaines in the inaugural list.

Raphaël Coche, Coche-Dury (Meursault)

Coche-Dury represents Meursault in the Three-Grape tier. The distinction applies to the estate's body of work across vintages rather than to a single white Burgundy.

Thomas Bouley, Jean-Marc & Thomas Bouley (Volnay)

Jean-Marc & Thomas Bouley is the Three-Grape estate in Volnay. Its place in the group gives the Côte de Beaune a red-wine representative alongside the selected white-wine domaines.

Olivier Lamy, Hubert Lamy (Saint-Aubin)

Hubert Lamy represents Saint-Aubin in the Three-Grape tier. MICHELIN includes it among four top-level Côte de Beaune estates.

How MICHELIN's Grapes Differ from Appellations and Scores

The MICHELIN Grape Selection Burgundy does three things at once. It borrows MICHELIN's familiar tiered visual grammar, applies it to wine estates rather than restaurants, and asks buyers to think across vintages rather than through a single bottle note.

That last point is central for en primeur-minded collectors. A bottle score can be exacting, especially when tied to a specific vintage and cuvée. A vineyard classification can be precise in geography. But neither quite answers the practical question many buyers ask when the allocation email arrives: do I trust this producer across the cellar, across weather, across years?

MICHELIN's top wine distinction is framed around estate confidence. Three MICHELIN Grapes is the top tier, reserved for producers whose wines earn confidence across vintages. That is not the same as saying every bottle is equal, or that vintage no longer matters. Burgundy would not permit such laziness. It means MICHELIN wants the estate's consistency, identity and technical command to be read as the core message.

For buyers used to cross-checking The Wine Advocate, Burghound, Decanter, merchant notes and sommelier recommendations, this new symbol will not end the conversation. It may shorten the first step. If a domaine appears with Three Grapes, the collector can then move more quickly to the questions that actually determine a purchase: which cuvée, which vintage, which provenance, which price, and whether the bottle has a place in the cellar rather than just on a trophy shelf.

The Other 85 Estates, and the Collector Read

The Three-Grape tier will attract the first wave of attention, but the rest of the inaugural list may prove just as useful for buyers who like to read one step ahead of the obvious. The Two-Grape, One-Grape and Selected estates, with their appellations and tiers:

Burgundy collectors rarely buy by tier alone. A Two-Grape estate in an appellation you already cellar may matter more to your buying life than a Three-Grape name you will never be offered. The Selected category can still point toward domaines worth watching, giving the list a dynamic quality rather than a frozen hierarchy.

The presence of Côte Chalonnaise names, including Bruno Lorenzon in Mercurey, Dureuil-Janthial in Rully and Maxime Cottenceau in Montagny, also prevents the inaugural Burgundy selection from reading only as a Côte d'Or roll call. For travelers, that widens the map. For collectors, it invites a more disciplined look at producer identity beyond the villages with the loudest auction-room echo.

The market reaction should be read carefully. A Three-Grape designation will not create bottles where allocations are already tight, and it should not tempt anyone to ignore vintage, storage or provenance. Burgundy punishes shortcuts. Still, symbols matter. Restaurants will use them, merchants will cite them, and collectors will file them away alongside their own tasting notes.

The MICHELIN Grape Selection Burgundy arrives as a new layer rather than a new law. Its best use is comparative: place the grape tier beside appellation, producer history, critic commentary, cellar need and the actual bottle in front of you. If MICHELIN continues to apply the same discipline as the program expands through wine, the first Burgundy list will be remembered not only for its nine Three-Grape estates, but for changing how quickly a producer's name can travel from a cellar door in the Côte d'Or to a collector's buying decision.