So the promotion of two estates to class B was the only change? Or did other things change too?

Per,

Sorry, I probably should have been more explicit.

Bellefont-Belcier, Destieux, Fleur Cardinale, Grand Corbin, Grand Corbin Despagne, and Monbousquet have been promoted to Grand Cru Classe.

The chateaux that have been removed from the Grand Cru list are: Bellevue, Cadet Bon, Faurie de Souchard, Guadet St-Julien, La Marzelle, Giraud-Bélivier's La Tour du Pin Figeac, Moueix' La Tour du Pin Figeac, Petit Faurie de Soutard, Tertre Daugay, Villemaurine and Yon Figeac.

Slightly OT... Alder, have you been to Saint-E. and do you have any recommendation as to where to stop if you only had time to visit one or two chateaux?

John,

Haven't been to St. Emilion so I'm a bad person to ask, it also depends on whether you want to go to the top chateaux or some smaller out of the way producers.

Alder

Dear John,
While I am no expert, make sure you see the city of St Emilion, Pomerol has a tasting room that is nice, and the big boys like Ausone are wonderful to visit but I also really liked Chateau Pipeau, a perennial good value and nice people

Thanks Alder and Jack,

Great - I had seen mentions of Ausone being good to visit, and I will check out Pipeau. We will be staying in the city for one night as we get our bearings after the flight from SFO and get ready to drive (very slowly) to Nice. With kids in tow I don't see us hitting more than one or two wineries in Saint-Emillion, and perhaps another one or two along the way, so I would like to choose well.

John,
I was in St. Emilion in July and visited Chateau Figeac and Chateau Beau Sejour Bècot. Both have nice wines. Chateau Figeac's wines are a little more "left bank-y" as they use a higher percentage of Cabernet (Franc and Sauvignon) in comparison to other St. Emilion producers. The tour of Beau Sejour Bècot was more interesting, which is great if you have kids in tow. Their vineyards are located on a limestone bench with the cellar located below. Both offer English tours.

Thanks, J, I had been considering Figeac, since it's one the St. E wines I've tried most frequently. Beau Sejour Bècot does sound great (nice website BTW if you don't mind Flash) and the wines look to be pretty darn good.

I'm a big fan of Chateau Rozier which is a Grand Crus Classé wine--or so I thought. Am I mistaken? I don't see it in the new classification.

BD,

It is not a Grand Cru, or at least, it has never appeared on any classification list I have ever seen for this year or for past years.

A little googling around shows that some wine merchants are SELLING it as a Grand Cru wine...

Hi All,

The 2006 re-classification of ST. Emilion wines brings very little to the table. As mentioned, many Class "B" are gathered with huge disparities in quality.

A big question arises:
Where are all the exceptional "garagistes" wines classified, some selling at outrageous prices even beyond class "B" ???

The only positive factor of such a reclassification is that marks a necessity for improved qualities in the wines as opposed to some classifications made some 151 years ago...

Marc,

Thanks for the comments. All of these classifications suffer from age-old prejudices in my opinion.

Dear All,

Commenting on the Grand Cru (Classé) (or not) issue: the confusing thing in St-Emilion is that there is the "Saint-Emilion Grand Cru" Appellation (next to the ordinary "Saint-Emilion" AOC), and there is the Grand Cru Classé Classification. The mentioned Ch. Rozier is not a Grand Cru Classé, but does belong to the "Saint-Emilion Grand Cru" AOC. On my website (www.bordoverview.com) both AOC and Classification are mentioned for all important Bordeaux chateau's (b.t.w. not yet the new 2006-classification).

Ah. Great clarification. I learn something new every day here.

And the bloodletting begins.

searching the relevant article, and visited blindly in your blog. nice one.
by the way, Ch. Cure Bon was kick off from 1996 St-Emilion classification.