Mature Flâneur

Beaune and the Best of Burgundy

The tony little town at the heart wine country

Left: Red wine maturing in oak barrels in the cellar of Philippe le Hardi winery, near Beaune. Right: Different sizes of bottles from the le Hardi cellar, going right up to the Nabuchodonozor, which holds 15 liters, or 20 regular bottles of wine. All photos by Tim Ward, except as noted.

The town of Beaune sits at the epicenter of Burgundy’s finest vineyards. It’s the Promised Land for Pinot Noir, the Eldorado for oenophiles.

Though Beaune has been a working town for wine producers since Roman times, today it also attracts many tourists and wine lovers and so has an impressive infrastructure for this secondary industry — wine museums and tasting rooms, and an annual charity wine auction in an extravagant medieval hospital that has become the best wine-event of the year. Fashion boutiques and classy restaurants line the historic pedestrian walkways of the ancient streets. Further out, the residential areas are dotted with the mansions of wealthy winemakers. Overall, the town exudes a bouquet of quiet prosperity.

Beautiful Beaune in early spring — the medieval walls of the old town remind us life was not so safe, once upon a time.

At the heart of the medieval-walled old town is a gothic cathedral filled with beautiful stained glass windows, both antique and new — a reminder that…