Wild grape resources play an important role in understanding the systematic evolution of Vitis L. The broad geographic distribution, natural crosses and complicated morphological variation result in the difficulty on classifying different species. The classification of some wild species were controversial. Based on the classification history of the genus Vitis, this article reviews the research progress of the wild species classification, and further outlines the shortages and our corresponding suggestions, which hopefully provide reference for the protection, utilization, classification, origin and evolution of wild grape resources.