{"id":33408,"date":"2018-09-22T11:15:05","date_gmt":"2018-09-22T09:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lhonoremagazine.com\/2018\/09\/22\/burgundy-a-formidable-exception\/"},"modified":"2022-11-26T15:05:06","modified_gmt":"2022-11-26T14:05:06","slug":"burgundy-a-formidable-exception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lhonoremagazine.com\/en\/2018\/09\/22\/burgundy-a-formidable-exception\/","title":{"rendered":"Burgundy: a formidable exception"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 2018 edition of the wine sale\nof the Hospices de Beaune will be held, as every year, at the end of November. The opportunity\nto rediscover the Burgundian wine region, which is a formidable\nexception in the French culture.<\/h3>\n\n

By Romain Rivi\u00e8re<\/h4>\n\n

A world apart. This is how\ncould be summarized the wine terroir of Burgundy. Here, more than anywhere else, 2\n000 years of history have shaped an unparalleled cultural site, characterized by\nby remarkable landscapes, an exceptional built heritage, and a\nunique know-how associated with a vineyard whose composition and distribution\nare a formidable exception: nowhere else, on the scale\ncomparable, the will to link the wine to its terroir has never been pushed so far\naway. The result is an extremely fragmented vineyard, composed of more than 1,000\nplots of land following one another on a thin ribbon running from Dijon to the south of Beaune, and\neach with its own history, name, taste and place in the\nhierarchy of vintages. Pommard, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Roman\u00e9e-Conti, Montrachet…\nOn this small piece of land, illustrious names remain numerous.\nAssociated with a specific economy and culture, these plots carry a\nname: the climates. In recognition of this exceptional character, these\nSince 2015, the climats of Burgundy have been listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site.<\/p>\n\n

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The sale of the wines of the Hospices de\nBeaune has been at the heart of this culture for over 150 years. It is,\nundoubtedly one of the most important charity sales in the world. Usually\nIn any case, the oldest, since the first edition dates back to 1859. With its\nvineyard of 60 hectares, composed of many prestigious appellations, and\nbuilt up over the centuries through the bequests of owners – the last ones\ndonations date back to 2011 and 2015 – the institution relies heavily on this\nto finance its hospital and retirement home, while supporting\nmedical research and various charities. Became\nover time an international event, particularly under the impetus of\nChristie’s, which opened it to the general public in 2005, the sale will be held this\nyear, as it does every year, during the third weekend of November, and will\nthe small and charming town of Beaune at the center of the world. During this long\nweekend of festivities, placed under the sign of the gastronomy and the\ntasting, individuals and professionals will be able to purchase a\nor several barrels of one of the Hospices’ vintages, then entrust the maturing and\nthe bottling to a local winegrower. <\/p>\n\n

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The Albert Bichot house is one of the\nof the key players in this sale. Owner of 100 hectares of\nvines distributed among its six estates in Pommard, Nuits-Saint-Georges,\nMercurey, Chablis or in the Beaujolais region, it has become established, for a\ntwenty years, as the first buyer of wine from the Hospices de Beaune,\nwhich she has been involved in selling since 1876. For several years, the house\nBichot goes even further by offering individuals the opportunity to bid in small\nquantities, by the bottle and not by the barrel (288 bottles). Its concept is\nsimple: group its purchases in order to carry more weight, by committing to\nnot to exceed a ceiling price set by the individual. She then raises the\nwine that she will bottle. The interest for the purchaser, in addition to that\nto buy in small quantities and without intermediaries, lies in the expertise of\nthe House of Bichot, an emblematic figure in the Burgundian wine industry since the\nmid-nineteenth century, and to be guided by a single interlocutor\nthroughout the process.<\/p>\n\n

Thanks to the reputation of its\nBurgundy has turned to the wine and tourism industry.\nMany wineries open their cellars to the general public and to their\npropose tasting tours. The castle of Pommard illustrates it\nperfectly. This domain, which remains one of the most prestigious in France,\noffers multiple experiences throughout the year designed for\nnovice wine lovers as well as experienced wine lovers. In the heart of the Clos Marey-Monge\nsurrounding the extraordinary eighteenth-century building, the Ch\u00e2teau de\nPommard articulates its offer around the gastronomy, the grape harvest, the\nclimates, history and culture, as well as youth. The opportunity\nto discover the specificities of an exceptional terroir, and the different wines\nof an exceptional house no less emblematic. <\/p>\n\n

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In the field of wine tourism, Olivier\nLeflaive, based in Puligny-Montrachet, is one of the pioneers. Perhaps even\none of the founders. A visionary, this winegrower understood before the\nthe public’s interest in the backstage of wine, its culture, its secrets\nand its terroirs. Its table d’h\u00f4tes, intended for international visitors,\ndates back to 1995, when the tourist activity around the wine was almost\nnon-existent. Due to the success of his concept, Olivier Leflaive moved on to\nthe next step soon after, by opening a hotel in a splendid\n17th century building in the heart of Puligny-Montrachet: garden,\nterrace, lounge, rooms of great comfort, gastronomic restaurant:\nthe establishment is a perfect example of the winegrower’s desire to bring together\nwine lovers in the same place, in order to encourage meetings and to\nshare passions. And this, around its own wines, but also around a\nselection of other names. During 2019, the facility will expand,\nand provide a second dining area and additional rooms. <\/p>\n\n

Not far from there, at the foot of the\nhill of Montrachet and at the doors of the village of Chassagne-Montrachet, the\nThe Picard family estate has also turned to the general public. Under\nAt the instigation of Francine Picard, now at the head of the company, the ch\u00e2teau\nof Chassagne-Montrachet, the headquarters of the group which has six estates and 136\nhectares of vineyards, has undertaken important work to make its\nright wing a real guest house. In a harmonious combination of\nand contemporary furniture signed by renowned designers,\nthis elegant space, which includes a large lounge, a billiard room, an area\nand 5 large suites, allows visitors to experience a stay at the\nheart of a castle emblematic of a terroir where the most prestigious appellations\nmore prestigious. The stay at the castle is also an opportunity to discover\nthe cellars of the XIth and XIVth century and to taste the\nwines of the house, from different appellations: Saint-Aubin,\nChassagne-Montrachet, Corton-Charlemagne, etc. For the Picard family,\nconcerned with sharing its know-how and its values in an educational way, which\nhave led it to turn, for several years, to a reasoned culture\nand respectful of the vine and the land, this contact with the public is\nprimordial. And for the host, the opportunity to live a cultural experience\nstrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2018 edition of the wine sale of the Hospices de Beaune will be held, as every year, at the end of November. The opportunity to rediscover the Burgundian wine…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":31526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[745],"tags":[1071,1316,1317,1318,777,1319,810],"powerkit_post_featured":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lhonoremagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Labour-a\u0300-cheval-au-Cha\u0302teau-Gris-HD-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lhonoremagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33408"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lhonoremagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lhonoremagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lhonoremagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lhonoremagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lhonoremagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33409,"href":"https:\/\/lhonoremagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33408\/revisions\/33409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lhonoremagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lhonoremagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lhonoremagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lhonoremagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33408"},{"taxonomy":"powerkit_post_featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lhonoremagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/powerkit_post_featured?post=33408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}