Last year, the Michelin Guide announced that it would be turning its attention to the world of wine, with plans to rate wineries around the world on a one-to-three-grape scale. This mirrors the three-star rating system that the tire company launched in 1926 to lure people onto the roads and into the restaurants of France, which rose over the decades to become the world’s most exalted restaurant review platform.
There was little surprise that Michelin was interested in wine, given that the company bought The Wine Advocate in 2019. That was the same year that the Guide started evaluating Central Coast restaurants in 2019, giving Santa Barbara County our first stars two years later, with Bell’s in Los Alamos and Sushi | Bar in Montecito making the one-star grade. Since then, Caruso’s and Silvers Omakase joined the one-star club with Bell’s , while Sushi | Bar is no longer on that list. There are also another 20 or so Santa Barbara restaurants listed by the Guide under lesser designations.
In last fall’s announcement , the Michelin Guide explained that its team of behind-the-scenes-but-not-anonymous experts would be reviewing wineries based on five criteria that range from farming and winemaking techniques to the quality of the finished wines. The first regions to be evaluated will be Burgundy and Bordeaux, and it remains unclear when the Guide will reach California, though the odds favor Napa Valley being first.