Michelin is stepping out of the dining room and into the vineyard, and California wine country is already feeling the tremors. The company has announced a new winery rating program called Michelin Grapes, with the first selections slated for 2026. For Napa and Sonoma vintners, where points and prestige still move markets, the new scorecard could shift how buyers, sommeliers and visitors value bottles and tasting room access.
According to The MICHELIN Guide, the program will debut in 2026 in Burgundy and the Bordeaux region and will rate producers with one, two or three “grapes,” along with a “Selected” designation. A team of full time wine inspectors employed by Michelin will make the selections, using a panel review process and editorial oversight. Michelin is pitching the project as a new, consistent reference point for wine lovers around the world.
As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, Michelin has described its wine inspectors as “seasoned professionals” that include former sommeliers, specialized critics and production experts. Unlike the famously covert restaurant visits, these winery visits will not be anonymous, a detail that has already raised eyebrows in the trade. The Chronicle also noted that the move lands on top of Michelin’s 2019 purchase of The Wine Advocate, the publication that helped cement Robert Parker’s 100 point scale. That acquisition, documented by Forbes, helps explain why some observers see Michelin Grapes as a possible challenger to existing scoring systems.
How The MICHELIN Grapes Will Be Judged
Per The MICHELIN Guide, inspectors will use five criteria to judge wineries: agronomy, technical mastery, identity, balance and consistency. That means looking at soil vitality and vine care in addition to how wines perform over multiple vintages. In its notes on technical mastery, the Guide says inspectors will seek wines “without any distracting flaws,” wording that some natural wine advocates worry could work against looser, more “natty” styles.
What It Could Mean For Napa And Sonoma
Industry analysts say a Michelin badge for estates could influence where restaurants and retailers place their trust and might reshape direct to consumer strategies for producers that earn grapes. Wine-Intelligence has called the initiative a potential new benchmark that could simplify discovery for consumers while shifting how regions market themselves. At the same time, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that many in California expect Michelin to bring Grapes to the United States in the future. For smaller or more experimental labels, the concern is that a single estate rating could funnel attention and distribution toward producers that already align with conventional technical standards…