The Winemakers Behind Burgundy's Three MICHELIN Grape Wineries

The Nine Three-Grape Estates

Nine estates earned Three MICHELIN Grapes but only eight winemakers, since Lalou Bize-Leroy holds two. Here is each, and the hands behind it.

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

Cécile Tremblay reclaimed her family’s vines and built her domaine from 2003, farming biodynamically and shaping reds away from extraction. Her place among the nine Three MICHELIN Grapes estates reads as recognition for a domaine built over two decades, not inherited as a finished reputation.

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

At Dugat-Py, Loïc Dugat-Py took over from his father Bernard in 2015. Three markers define the wines: old vines, tiny yields, and deep Gevrey reds. Concentration begins before the vat, in vine age and crop level, then carries into a Gevrey profile with density.

Christophe Roumier, Domaine Georges Roumier (Chambolle-Musigny)

Christophe Roumier has run Domaine Georges Roumier since 1990, with the estate’s Bonnes-Mares and Musigny standing as benchmarks in a village where small differences in handling can flatten or preserve site character.

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

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is led by co-directors Bertrand de Villaine and Perrine Fenal, who succeeded Aubert de Villaine in 2022. Cellar master Alexandre Bernier completes the team. Michelin’s consistency criterion makes the rating a judgment on the present team, not only on inherited reputation.

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

Domaine Leroy puts Lalou Bize-Leroy at the center of the top tier. In her early 90s she still blind-tastes every bottle, working biodynamically at microscopic yields. The story is not volume; it is selection, farming, and the final sensory authority of the maker.

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

Domaine d'Auvenay is Lalou Bize-Leroy's tiny personal estate in Saint-Romain, the source of her hardest-to-find whites and reds. It is the second of her two estates in the Three-Grape tier, farmed to the same uncompromising standard as Leroy.

Raphaël Coche, Coche-Dury (Meursault)

Raphaël Coche succeeded his father Jean-François Coche-Dury at Coche-Dury, the Meursault benchmark. The detail that matters is succession. The domaine’s standing depends on whether the next hand can keep the line steady.

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

Thomas Bouley, who took over from his father Jean-Marc in 2012, works precise Volnay and Pommard. Volnay often asks for restraint from the cellar; Pommard can ask for different control. A domaine that holds both without blurring them speaks to Michelin’s criterion of identity.

Olivier Lamy, Hubert Lamy (Saint-Aubin)

Olivier Lamy, Hubert’s son, is the maker behind Hubert Lamy, known for ultra-high-density plantings that helped put Saint-Aubin on the map. Density is spacing, competition, root behavior, canopy pressure, and labor. Lamy’s inclusion may be the clearest example of Michelin rewarding a technical vineyard idea that changed how many drinkers read a village.

How Michelin Evaluates Wine Estates: Five Criteria

The five criteria are the most useful part of the announcement for anyone trying to read beyond the symbol. Agronomy puts the soil and vine before the cellar. Technical mastery asks whether the estate can convert that material without losing the thread. Identity asks whether the wine speaks with a recognizable house and place signature. Balance asks whether structure, fruit, texture, and energy sit in proportion. Consistency across vintages asks whether the estate can repeat its standard when the year changes.

Those criteria explain why Michelin’s Grape Selection is not restaurant language carried into wine. A wine inspector assessing an estate must look across releases, farming choices, and the way a producer’s work survives multiple years. Professional wine inspectors employed by the Michelin Group carry out the assessments, using a model that mirrors the anonymity and independence of Michelin’s restaurant work.

For Burgundy, the vineyard criterion has teeth. The region is often discussed through parcels and classification, but Michelin’s top tier does not rate a climat by itself. It rates the producer. That makes the person in charge visible: Tremblay reclaiming vines, Loïc Dugat-Py limiting yields, Christophe Roumier carrying a house line since 1990, Bertrand de Villaine and Perrine Fenal managing DRC after the 2022 handover, Lalou Bize-Leroy tasting and selecting, Raphaël Coche following Jean-François Coche-Dury, Thomas Bouley runs the estate, which his father Jean-Marc handed to him in 2012, and worksing Volnay and Pommard, Olivier Lamy testing density in Saint-Aubin.

What the Rating Means for Collectors

The collector signal is simple but not final: Michelin has placed nine Burgundy estates in the highest tier of its first wine-estate rating. That does not replace tasting, cellar history, importer trust, or the long work of learning a domaine over vintages. It does add a producer-level mark from an organization whose new wine criteria emphasize farming, cellar work, identity, balance, and durability across years.

For allocation planning, the Three MICHELIN Grapes Burgundy list will not make rare wines less rare. Domaine Leroy, Domaine d'Auvenay, Coche-Dury, and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti already move through constrained channels. The more practical use is comparative: ask why each estate made the top tier, then read that answer against the five criteria. Which estates are there through vine age and yield? Which through succession? Which through village identity? Which through a farming idea that changed the way a place is read?

For practitioners, the list rewards patience more than spectacle. It names makers whose work can be described through duration: Tremblay building from 2003; Christophe Roumier at the helm since 1990; Bertrand de Villaine and Perrine Fenal carrying DRC after the 2022 handover; Raphaël Coche working after Jean-François Coche-Dury; Thomas Bouley in Volnay; Olivier Lamy extending Hubert Lamy’s name through plant density and Saint-Aubin focus. The award is new. The work behind it is not.