While Bordeaux’s Left Bank was classified in 1855, the Right Bank didn’t establish an equivalent ranking until the 1950s. There are classifications for the Graves, Sauternes and Barsac, as well as the Médoc across the Gironde, but it is only Saint-Emilion that has been classified on the Right. How does Saint-Emilion’s classification work?  The classification was first established in 1955, dividing the appellation’s properties into three levels of quality based on a scoring system. The top wines are classified as Premier Grand Cru Classé A, followed by those that are Premier Grand Cru Classé B and then the Grand Cru Classé.  From the beginning, the idea was to try and create a more democratic system that rewarded estates’ efforts and avoided complacency. While the 1855 Classification was assigned to the château – essentially the brand, rather than the wine or specific vineyards (meaning properties could expand and shrink, yet their status wouldn’t change), the Saint-Emilion classification is judged both on terroir and the château’s performance. The classification is also reassessed every 10-15 years, with the most recent update in 2022. How are properties in Saint-Emilion classified?  As mentioned, the ranking of estates is based on a scoring system, out of 20.  For the Premiers Grands Crus Classés, the score is based on: a tasting of 15 vintages (representing 30% of the score); the property’s national and international reputation, its promotion and distribution (35%); the quality and consistency of the terroir (30%); and the property’s approach to viticulture, vinification and traceability (5%). To sit within this bracket, estates must earn 16 out of 20, with the best earning Premier Grand Cru Classé A status.  For the Grands Crus Classés, the score is based on: a tasting of 10 vintages (representing 50% of the score); the property’s national and international reputation, its promotion and distribution (20%); the quality and consistency of the terroir (20%); and the property’s approach to viticulture, vinification and traceability (10%). In essence, there is more focus on the tasting and the property’s practices, and less on terroir or its reputation and representation in the market. To achieve Grand Cru Classé status, a property must earn 14 out of the possible 20 points.  Because there is a detailed assessment of the soils, properties can have some but not all of their land classified. For example, Ch. Angélus had only 27 of its 39 hectares deemed worthy of Premier Grand Cru Classé A and Ch. Canon only has 24 of its 34 hectares classified as Premier Grand Cru Classé B. Why is Saint-Emilion’s classification controversial?  While the intention to try and create a classification system that was both dynamic and about the land was noble, it hasn’t quite worked out that way. There is much debate about the different factors that contribute to a property’s score, with the proportion tied to distribution and marketing a particular point of contention. With its constant evolution, this gives more room for controversy – with anyone demoted inevitably disgruntled. All in all, the result is a legal battleground, with accusations of undue influence and more.   The initial classification took three years to finalise, and it has since been re-drawn in 1969, 1986, 1996, 2006, 2012 and 2022. After the 2006 classification, five estates filed lawsuits against their demotion, while the 2012 only brought more cases to the courts.   Ahead of the 2022 classification, most of the Premier Grand Cru Classé A estates left the classification (Ch. Ausone, Ch. Angélus and Ch. Cheval Blanc), leaving just Ch. Pavie in the top rank of the classification, joined by Ch. Figeac in 2022. Read more about the classification’s recent controversies here. What about Saint-Emilion Grand Cru? Saint-Emilion Grand Cru is – confusingly – very different to Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classé. This isn’t a classification but an appellation – one that has the exact same geographic area as Saint-Emilion AC.  Properties need to apply to be part of the classification but can otherwise make wine under the area’s two appellations – Saint-Emilion AC or Saint-Emilion Grand Cru AC.   “Grand Cru” status is not tied to the quality of the terroir but dictated by yields (a lower maximum of 40hl/ha), a higher minimum potential alcohol and longer minimum ageing requirements (only permitted to be bottled 16 months after harvest), and must be estate-bottled. The idea is that this leads to a higher-quality, richer wine. The current Saint-Emilion classification The latest iteration of the Saint-Emilion classification was announced in 2022, with just two properties sitting at Premier Grand Cru Classé A level and 12 at Premier Grand Cru Classé B, and 63 Grands Crus Classés. Find the full list of estates below. Premier Grand Cru Classé A Ch. Pavie   Ch. Figeac   Premier Grand Cru Classé B   Ch. Beau-Séjour Bécot  Ch. Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarrosse  Ch. Bélair-Monange  Ch. Canon  Ch. Canon-la-Gaffelière  Ch. Larcis Ducasse  Ch. Pavie Macquin  Ch. Troplong Mondot  Ch. TrotteVieille  Ch. Valandraud Clos Fourtet  La Mondotte  Grand Cru Classé Ch. l’Arrosée   Ch. Balestard la Tonnelle  Ch. Barde-Haut  Ch. Bellefont-Belcier  Ch. Bellevue  Ch. Berliquet  Ch. Cadet-Bon  Ch. Cap de Mourlin  Ch. le Chatelet  Ch. Chauvin  Ch. Clos de Sarpe  Ch. la Clotte  Ch. la Commanderie  Ch. Corbin  Ch. Côte de Baleau  Ch. la Couspaude  Ch. Dassault  Ch. Destieux  Ch. la Dominique  Ch. Faugères  Ch. Faurie de Souchard  Ch. de Ferrand  Ch. Fleur Cardinale  Ch. La Fleur Morange Mathilde  Ch. Fombrauge  Ch. Fonplégade  Ch. Fonroque  Ch. Franc Mayne  Ch. Grand Corbin  Ch. Grand Corbin-Despagne  Ch. Grand Mayne  Ch. les Grandes Murailles  Ch. Grand-Pontet  Ch. Guadet  Ch. Haut Sarpe  Clos des Jacobins  Couvent des Jacobins  Ch. Jean Faure  Ch. Laniote  Ch. Larmande  Ch. Laroque  Ch. Laroze Clos la Madeleine   Ch. la Marzelle  Ch. Monbousquet  Ch. Moulin du Cadet  Clos de l’Oratoire  Ch. Pavie Decesse  Ch. Peby Faugères  Ch. Petit Faurie de Soutard  Ch. de Pressac  Ch. le Prieuré  Ch. Quinault l’Enclos  Ch. Ripeau  Ch. Rochebelle  Ch. Saint-Georges-Cote-Pavie  Clos Saint-Martin  Ch. Sansonnet  Ch. la Serre  Ch. Soutard  Ch. Tertre Daugay  Ch. la Tour Figeac  Ch. Villemaurine  Ch. Yon-Figeac   Read more about Bordeaux or browse all Bordeaux listings 

Bordeaux’s Right Bank wasn’t classified in 1855, but Saint-Emilion introduced its equivalent system in 1955, ranking the appellation’s best properties. Here’s everything you need to know about the Saint-Emilion classification, how properties are ranked – and why it’s so controversial

Everything you need to know about the Saint-Emilion classification – the official ranking of this Right Bank appellation’s top wine estates

Your guide to the Saint-Emilion classification

“In more recent times The Glenturret has not been a brand name that is well known in whisky.” While few might refute this, they are not typically the first words you expect to hear from the mouth of the distillery’s Managing Director. “When the new owners took over, it was a unique opportunity to take this old, heritage brand that no one has ever heard of and reposition it without any of the baggage you normally get with repositioning older brands,” John Laurie adds. In 2019, Silvo Denz – owner of Chx Faugères in Saint-Emilion and Lafaurie-Peyraguey in Sauternes – bought a 50% stake in the Highland distillery via his Lalique Group for £15.5m. (Swiss entrepreneur Hansjörg Wyss bought the other 50% for an undisclosed sum.) This marked Denz’s first move into the whisky world and a huge moment for The Glenturret. The deal with The Edrington Group, who own The Macallan and Highland Park, included the distillery, the single malt brand and more than one million litres of maturing stock. In the intervening years, the brand once known as a component in blends and home of The Famous Grouse Experience has been on an oft-used-and-cliched “journey”. The team has grown, acquiring some big names along the way, the core range has been stripped back to basics, and all the fundamentals have been scrutinised. For the first nine months after former The Macallan Whisky Maker Bob Dalgarno joined The Glenturret, he was reportedly nowhere to be seen. After his induction, Dalgarno – chalk in hand and overalls-clad – barricaded himself in the warehouse. The industry legend spent month upon month scrawling on the casks, rolling barrels around and familiarising himself with his new pet project. For the self-professed “farm stock”, the prospect of joining a manually operated distillery after working at The Macallan for 30 years was a real thrill. Dalgarno could experiment and affect change. New contracts with local farmers to run barley trials have been set up and the cask-selection process has been extensively reviewed. He and Distillery Manager Ian Renwick are a formidable team. The duo spent months drilling into the stocks and assessing what worked well and didn’t. After this, two things were taken as read: the quality of the new-make was of utmost importance, and The Glenturret would stay a small, hand-operated distillery. “Other brands will use casks as their dominant flavour profile,” Laurie explains. “We use our new-make spirit. It’s the backbone of The Glenturret. You should be able to nose our new-make spirit and nose it at 30 years old and never lose that character.” The Glenturret new-make spirit is light and quite soft because of the long fermentation and slow distillation methods. In order to preserve this character and avoid railroading it, cask selection is key. This, according to Laurie, has been instrumental in 80% of The Glenturret’s maiden whiskies selling out in the first seven months. “We were really keen not to be the brand that just puts the same liquid in a shiny new bottle and charges a different price point for it,” the Managing Director says. That said, innovation – or, as Laurie prefers it called, experimentation – is high on the agenda at the Highland distillery. “It’s less scientific clean rooms and more overalls and a lot of incredibly long hours and hard work,” Laurie adds. Ostensibly, the culmination of the first stage of this experimentation is the 2020 series of releases, which includes the familiar TripleWood and a scattering of age statements. But look a little harder and the range is an adept exploration of refinement, questioning age, alcohol strength, refill casks and peat. The team has also not shied away from the issue of transparency – something that the whisky world has not always embraced. “We will tell people exactly what’s in our whisky; we won’t hide anything,” Laurie says. “If you want to know how old our non-age statement is then we will tell you. It’s all about the quality of the liquid for us.” In production terms, The Glenturret is considered small batch. As Brand Ambassador Jamie Morrison quaintly puts it, “At roughly 200,000 litres of alcohol per year, that’s a piece of plankton floating in the Pacific in relation to much bigger, more automated distilleries.” For Laurie, balancing genuine scarcity with a territory-by-territory approach will be instrumental to their success. “You want to explain to the consumer that when it sells out, it sells out. There is not going to be another one coming out the back of it. But also managing it to the point where it is not so hard to get that the consumer loses interest,” Laurie says. “We wanted to make sure everywhere we opened up we looked after as we grow. For The Glenturret to really work, it has to be sold in a location where somebody can take the time to tell the customer the story and understand what makes us different. I would rather they didn’t make the sale than make the wrong sale. “This distillery can’t put out any more than 500,000 litres of alcohol unless we started putting on extensions and changing the process completely,” Laurie says. “And there is absolutely no willingness from the ownership all the way down through the team here to do that. So, The Glenturret will reach that 500,000 litres of alcohol production level and stay there.” Morrison picks up the point: “Everything we do is truly small batch and that comes with its own set of challenges in terms of production, but it also makes us quite nimble which means we can afford to do small experimental runs of different barley. We can adjust fermentation times and adjust the run times of the stills quite easily. And that affords us opportunity to effectively have a play round and see what happens.” The words “small batch” and “limited” are often bandied about in the drinks world. In fact, The Glenturret is well-positioned on many fronts when it comes to buzzword bingo, but there is a sincerity in the mission here and a stellar line up of talent which will ultimately let the liquid do the talking. Browse all current Glenturret listings or all Scotch whisky or read more Editorial

When the oldest working distillery in Scotland found a new owner in 2019, many stood back and speculated on how its fortunes might change. Holly Motion speaks to the team about how a new approach has been a barnstorming success


Exploring how Scotland's oldest working distillery, The Glenturret, has gone back to basics and transformed the Highland producer's reputation

Back to basics at The Glenturret

The Glenturret: back to basics

Château Faugères

France

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