The Domaine des Courtines of Beaune Premier Cru of Burgundy

The voice drops a little; the tone grows more reverential. Everyone knows; everyone understands. There will be wry allusions to a quest, perhaps even the grail. Sacrifice is expected en route; failure (always forgiven: a badge of honour) beckons on every side. Kitted up, your hopes armour-plated? I might be talking about planting vines on a cleared slope, or simply about taking the corkscrew to a ridiculously expensive bottle of wine, but you all know by now what’s meant. Pinot Noir. ‘Pinotism’ ...

In what François Poher, director and chairman of the Board of Hospices Civils de Beaune, dubbed ‘historic and spectacular results’, the auction broke other records, including highest ever total for a charity wine auction and record total for any wine auction held by Sotheby’s, according to the auction house that managed the sale. The average price per barrel sold over Sunday’s seven-hour auction also reached a new high, at €35,974 topping last year’s record-setting average price per lot of €34,9 ...

Total sales at the Hospices de Nuits-St-Georges 2022 auction reached €2.49m ($2.74m) from 109 ‘pièces‘ of wines from the Burgundy 2021 vintage, said organisers. Held on Sunday 20 March, sales rose by nearly 30% on last year’s auction, which hit €1.9m from 114 pièces of 2020-vintage wines. One pièce is equivalent to 288 bottles. Sales were €1.6m back in 2020, and this year’s record total is more evidence of Burgundy’s strong momentum on the fine wine market. It also suggests the annua ...