By any measure, the St. Emilion appellation of Bordeaux has done very well. It's got its own sub-appellations and is much better known than many of Bordeaux' 50 or so appellations - you familiar with Cotes de Castillon? Moulis? - but it still chafes at being left out of the original Classification of 1855.
In 1954, the winemakers of St. Emilion developed their own classification system, which ranked the various chateaux according to quality, Grands Crus Classes being the top. The key difference with the 1855 classification is that the St. Emilion ones are to be re-classified every ten years - meaning some wineries move on to or up the lists, and others fall down or even off. The latest re-classification was in 2006 - and so much trouble was stirred up by chateaux kicked off that they managed to get a French court to annul it. The 1996 classification was reinstated and the scuffle continues.
New York Times Magazine writer Edward Lewine provides great background on the St. Emilion squabble and looks at the very real power of the classification system in this excellent article.
