Luxury hotel holidays to Burgundy

It is, and clients who give it a few days of its own are almost always glad they did. Burgundy’s reputation rests on a narrow band of hillside, the Côte d’Or, running south from Dijon through the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune, where villages such as Gevrey-Chambertin, Vougeot, Vosne-Romanée, Pommard, Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet sit only a few minutes apart. The vineyards here, divided into more than a thousand individually named plots known as climats, were inscribed by UNESCO in 2015, and the landscape rewards slow exploration in a way that an overnight stop cannot. Beaune is the natural centre, a small walled town with the Hospices, wine merchants’ cellars and good restaurants, and our hotels are chosen to give quick access to it while staying in the vineyards themselves. Les Sources de Vougeot, a château-hotel in the heart of the Côte de Nuits close to the Clos de Vougeot, suits clients who want to be among the great red wine villages. The Hostellerie de Levernois, a Relais & Châteaux hotel with a Michelin-starred restaurant set in parkland just outside Beaune, offers a quiet base within minutes of the town. COMO Le Montrachet, in the village of Puligny-Montrachet, is surrounded by the grand cru white wine vineyards of Montrachet and Bâtard-Montrachet and is well placed for the southern Côte de Beaune. Three or four nights in one of these allows time for estate visits, a day in Dijon and an excursion further afield without rushing.

Yes, and this is where planning makes a real difference, because Burgundy works differently from most wine regions. Many of the most respected domaines are small family estates with a few hectares spread across several villages; they have no visitor centre, sell most of their wine in advance and receive guests only by appointment, often only through an introduction. We arrange private visits and tastings with growers in the cellars, guided walks through the vineyards to understand how wines from neighbouring plots can differ so markedly, and sessions with a specialist guide or sommelier who can explain the hierarchy of village, premier cru and grand cru wines in front of the vines themselves. In Beaune, several of the long-established négociant houses have extensive medieval cellars open for tastings, which complement the more personal domaine visits well. The Château du Clos de Vougeot, built by Cistercian monks who did much to shape Burgundian viticulture, is the headquarters of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin and well worth a visit. Beyond the Côte d’Or, Chablis to the north-west produces a distinctive, mineral style of Chardonnay, the Côte Chalonnaise offers characterful wines from Mercurey, Givry and Rully at gentler prices, and the Mâconnais to the south, with Pouilly-Fuissé beneath the Rock of Solutré, leads naturally on to the Beaujolais. We recommend no more than two estate visits a day, so that each has the time and attention it deserves, and we take account of the harvest, when many domaines close to visitors altogether.

Burgundy was an independent duchy of great wealth in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and before that the heart of monastic Europe, and both periods have left a rich architectural inheritance. In Beaune, the Hospices, founded in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin as a hospital for the poor, is known for its glazed, patterned roof tiles and houses Rogier van der Weyden’s great Last Judgement polyptych. Dijon, the ducal capital, has the Palace of the Dukes, whose Musée des Beaux-Arts contains the elaborately carved tombs of Philip the Bold and John the Fearless, a well-preserved centre of half-timbered and stone town houses, and the Cité Internationale de la Gastronomie et du Vin, opened in 2022. The Romanesque churches and abbeys are a particular strength: the basilica of Vézelay, on its hilltop above the Cure, and the Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay, founded in 1118, are both UNESCO World Heritage Sites; the remains of the great abbey of Cluny, the cathedral of Saint-Lazare at Autun with its sculpted tympanum by Gislebertus, and the abbey church at Tournus complete a rewarding circuit. Burgundy also has fine Renaissance châteaux, such as Ancy-le-Franc and Bussy-Rabutin, and at Guédelon a medieval castle is being built using only thirteenth-century techniques. The food is a pleasure in its own right, from jambon persillé, escargots and gougères to Charolais beef, Époisses cheese, Dijon mustard and blackcurrant crème de cassis. A cycle path through the vineyards from Beaune to Santenay, and the quiet towpaths of the Canal de Bourgogne, offer an unhurried way to see the countryside.

Burgundy is one of the most accessible French regions from Britain, which makes it a good choice for a shorter break as well as a longer stay. By rail, Eurostar connects in Paris with TGV services from the Gare de Lyon to Dijon in around an hour and a half, with some trains continuing to Beaune, and there are also direct TGV services from Lille; the whole journey from London can be made comfortably in a day, and a hire car or private transfer can meet you at the station. For clients who prefer to drive, Beaune is around six hours from Calais by motorway via Reims and Troyes, and many choose to break the journey in Champagne. The nearest airports with flights from the UK are Lyon, a little under two hours’ drive from Beaune, and Geneva, a little further. A car or a private driver is the most practical way to visit estates and villages, though for wine visits a driver has obvious advantages, and Beaune itself is compact and easily explored on foot. Burgundy combines naturally with its neighbours: Champagne and Alsace to the north and east for a tour of the vineyard regions of eastern France, the Loire to the west, the Jura, Lake Geneva and Switzerland to the east, and Beaujolais, the Rhône Valley and Provence to the south. It also works well as an overnight or two-night stop on a longer journey to the south of France, and as a few days after Paris on a rail holiday. We will suggest the combination and pace that best suit the length of your holiday.

Burgundy has a continental climate, with cold winters averaging around 6°C in January and warm summers averaging around 26°C in July and August, and the wine calendar shapes the character of each season as much as the weather. Late April to June is a particularly good time: the vines are coming into leaf, the countryside is fresh and green, the roads are quiet and domaines are generally at their most able to receive visitors. July and August are warm and settled, and although some smaller estates close for part of August, this is a good time for touring, cycling and the outdoor life of the villages. The harvest, which in recent years has usually fallen between late August and the second half of September, depending on the year, is an atmospheric time to be in the region, but many domaines are too busy to receive visitors, so wine-focused holidays are best timed just before or after it. October brings autumn colour to the slopes of the Côte d’Or, often a striking sight. The third weekend of November is the Trois Glorieuses, centred on the Hospices de Beaune charity wine auction, with tastings and dinners across the region; hotels in and around Beaune are booked many months ahead, so early planning is essential. In late January, the Saint-Vincent Tournante, a wine festival hosted by a different village each year, brings the cellars to life in the quietest part of the year, although some hotels and restaurants close for a period in winter. We will always advise on timing in relation to your interests and the hotels you are considering.