Arrays of wires and dots have been fabricated by electron beam lithography and Ar+ ion beam etching from CdTe/ZnTe quantum wells. The intrinsic exciton photoluminescence recombination (X line) is observed for wires (dots) as small as 100 nm (130 nm). In addition, photoluminescence intensity from excitons bound to localized centres (Y line) can be detected for the smallest wires (40 nm) and for the dots down to 100 nm. The emission intensity variation together with the polarization rate are also investigated as a function of the grating period.