Beaune

The commercial hub of Burgundian wine giving its name to the Côte de Beaune section of the Côte d’Or, Beaune was originally founded as a Roman camp by Julius Caesar, later becoming the seat of the Dukes of Burgundy in the fourteenth century. It is the Côte d’Or's third largest commune after Gevrey-Chambertin and Meursault. Its band of premiers crus, of which there are 44, stretches from Pommard in the south to the boundary with Savigny in the north. The soils are complex and varied and therefore so are the resulting styles of wine, however it is true to say that in general its Pinot Noir vineyards are usually some of the first to ripen in the Côte de Beaune, at least outside of the vinyeards on the Corton hill, and produce rich, ripe sturdy wines that may lack the finesse of the Volnays or Chambolle's of this world but compensate for this by showing a great deal of guts and character.