The Bordeaux Cru Classé 1855 Classification was created for the 1855 Paris Exposition. Wikimedia Commons

The Real Review Wine Classification of New Zealand 2025 contains 351 classified wines, up 12 entries from the 2024 edition. This year, we stay at 28 three Merit wines, two Merits increase by two wines to 153 , and one Merit by 10 wines to 178.

Huon Hooke broke this down previously and although we do not have exact numbers, about 7% of Australia’s total number of wines make the cut in the Classification. For New Zealand, an attempt to quantify the number of different wines/labels in annual production is a very rough estimate at best. New Zealand Winegrowers has 755 registered producers as of 2024.

A dozen producers or so release two to three wines annually and about two dozen release in excess of 20 different wines. The vast majority inhabit the four to six wine range. Taking an arbitrary average of 5 wines per producer, that brings us to 3,775 with probably a 25% margin of error. That means the New Zealand Classification probably includes around 9.2% of all the labels.

The Real Review Classification algorithm looks at 10 years of scores and creates an aggregate score with a slight bias towards more recent vintages. This allows the Classification to achieve two aims simultaneously: rewarding consistency and pedigree, while also allowing for change so the Classification is more dynamic than some of the better-known European ones which most people are familiar with.

In this article, I will do some quick comparisons of these other systems, just for kicks. I will be looking at the Bordeaux Crus Classés, Burgundy’s Grands Crus, Champagne’s Grands Crus, the German VDP.GROSSE LAGE and the relatively new Chianti Classico Gran Selezione.

The Bordeaux Cru Classé 1855 Classification was created for the 1855 Paris Exposition and focused primarily on the Médoc, with one wine from Graves. A separate sweet wine ranking was created for Sauternes as part of the same exercise but it is less often talked about.

The Médoc list famously went from four to five first growths after much lobbying from Mouton-Rothschild and estates which can claim direct lineage to a classified estate can all claim the same ranking (e.g. the Pichons, Rauzans and Léovilles), but these changes are the exception to the rule and it has essentially remained the same since it was created. The list grants the classification to the named estate rather than specific wines or vineyards. It is also worth remembering that the classification for Médoc and Graves was only for red wine, dividing the estates up into five tiers from 1st growth to 5th growth, totalling 61 red wine estates.

In Sauternes, Yquem sits alone at the top as Premier Cru Supérieur. There are 11 Premier Crus and 14 Deuxième Crus below it. These classifications were based on historical pricing and the reputation of the estates as determined by the negoce and trade at the time. There are also Grand Cru Classé rankings for Péssac-Leognan which apply to red and white (16 classed growths in total) as well as the famously contested and controversial classification of Grand Cru Classé in Saint-Émilion which currently sits at 14 Premier Grand Cru Classé and 71 Grand Cru Classé. If we assume that Bordeaux has about 6,000 producers, roughly 3.1% of Bordeaux’s total production is classified under one of these systems.

Burgundy has the Grand Cru system, which is a terroir-driven classification governed by Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) laws. Here it is the designated vineyards which are classified, regardless of producer, although there are stringent yield and production laws which must be obeyed. There are 33 Grand Cru AOCs (only about 2.0% of Burgundy’s total vineyard area). Keep in mind that the whole of Chablis Grand Cru is listed as one Grand Cru, the individual named grands crus are not separate AOCs. Less than 1.3% of Burgundy’s total production across the entire region is released as Grand Cru in one form or another. The discrepancy between vineyard area and proportion of production comes down to the difference in permitted and realised yields of the different AOC levels.

This classification ‘can’ change with some effort but it requires persistent and well-funded lobbying to do so. Top producers inhabit an entirely different price tier than their neighbours anyway so they may not be motivated to pursue promotion for their vineyards, especially if they are not the sole owners of those sites. It is not uncommon to have a top producer’s village lieu dit sell for much more than the Grand Cru wine from a large negoce.

The Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (VDP) of Germany is a private association of top producers, with a classification system separate from Germany’s legal wine law. It developed this as a response to the 1971 German Wine Law which merged a vast number of vineyards together and shifted quality parameters from terroir and site to sugar content at harvest.

Across time, they developed (or some would say revived) a ranking system for their top sites. These are now called the VDP.GROSSE LAGE, which is their Grand Cru equivalent; and the VDP.ERSTE LAGE or Premier Cru equivalent. The VDP system of classification focuses on vineyard origin with their strict internal quality controls. They also developed the VDP.GROSSES GEWÄCHS or GG wines which are only permitted for dry wines made from VDP. GROSSE LAGE sites. The VDP’s membership represents about 3% of Germany’s total wine production, although their wines amount to over 7% of its total value. The VDP.GROSSE LAGE wines represent less than 1% of all German wine.

Champagne has a Grand Cru system which is based on the Échelle des Crus system. This scale rates or grades entire villages rather than individual vineyards or producers. It starts at 80% and goes up to 100%, with 100% being Grand Cru and 90-99% being Premier Cru. There are 17 Grand Cru villages (out of 319 total) and 44 Premier Cru villages.

Historical quality of grapes from villages was measured by looking at price and reputation. The scale’s percentage value actually represents the pricing potential of the grapes as Champagne largely operates through the sale of grapes from growers to houses, so the scale determines what percentage of the year’s published sale price a grower from a particular village could achieve.

Less than 9% of Champagne’s total vineyard area is rated Grand Cru. For a wine to be labelled Grand Cru however, it must come entirely from Grand Cru-rated villages and since much of the Grand Cru fruit goes into blends, the actual proportion of Grand Cru labelled Champagne is significantly less than 9%.

Italy’s Chianti Classico Gran Selezione was introduced in 2014 as the top tier of Chianti Classico after a long and tortured birth. It sits above Chianti Classico Riserva and Chianti Classico and stipulates estate-grown grapes, a larger proportion of sangiovese, longer élevage of 30 months and stricter quality standards requiring approval from a tasting panel. This is a new classification and by nature of the tasting process is more dynamic than the vineyard or estate-based classifications. For 2023, roughly 6% of Chianti Classico production is Gran Selezione.