Aerial view of Saint Emilion, taken from the regional tourism office at http://www.turismoburdeosgironde.es/var/cdt/storage/images/media/images/saint-e-milion-vue-du-ciel-2/3640354-1-fre-FR/saint-e-milion-vue-du-ciel-2.jpg

The Jurisdiction of Saint Emilion was inscribed to the list in 1999 based on its status as an outstanding example of an historic vineyard landscape that has survived intact and in activity to the present day. It is a cultural landscape, albeit not as much a built one as one which  has a specific cultivation pattern and agrarian frame, based on such things as the quality of the soil and the way it is used.

The village is charming, but I would not say it is architecturally much better than many others in a region in which there are really impressive villages (the Dordogne river valley is a wonderful landscape with good examples). It really excels as an introductory point to the Bordeaux wineries as a cultural feature, and it has become a tourism hotspot in that sense.