10 Years of the Climats: Take Part to the Grand Finale on July 4
The Month of the Climats is in full swing in the Côte-d’Or through July 3, with more than 80 cultural events (walks, performances, exhibitions, tours, tastings, and more) on the schedule. The aim is to invite visitors to (re)discover the Climats of Bourgogne, ten years after they were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list.
A must-see event on July 4 in Puligny-Montrachet: the anniversary will be marked by a festive and symbolic event titled “Guardians of the Climats,” from 4 p.m. to midnight, featuring activities for the whole family.
On the program:
- Official ceremony: bringing together local stakeholders to reaffirm their commitment.
- Artistic walk through the vineyards: a route of 10 poetic encounters combining music, dance, and theater.
- Gourmet village: tastings of wines from the Climats and meetings with winegrowers.
- Nighttime spectacular: blending fire, storytelling, and performance to awaken the “memory of the Climats,” followed by a community dance.
Throughout the summer, the three sites of the Cité des Climats et vins de Bourgogne - Chablis, Beaune, and Mâcon - will host a vibrant program centered around culture, knowledge-sharing, tastings, and local engagement.
In Beaune, the 10th anniversary of the Climats’ inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage list will be celebrated the weekend of July 5-6, featuring an exceptional tasting of Grand Cru wines, workshops, and guided tours. Temporary exhibitions, tasting workshops, and evening events will run throughout the season - including the Nuit des Étoiles (Night of the Stars) on August 16.
In Chablis and Mâcon, brunches, concerts, guided tours, talks, and family-friendly activities will also fill the calendar, all with a shared mission: to offer new ways to experience the richness of the Bourgogne vineyards.
This summer, Bourgogne is alive with the rhythm of the vineyard. From Chablis to Mâcon, 252 estates, wineries, and cooperative cellars certified under the Vignobles & Découvertes label are opening their doors to visitors. The fully digital Guide des Caves makes planning easy, listing all practical information: opening hours, spoken languages, tasting options, accommodations, and environmental commitments.
At the same time, wine festivals are taking over the villages: concerts, theater, exhibitions, gourmet markets, vineyard walks, and open houses come together in a festive program rooted in the terroir.
An invitation to experience Bourgogne wines differently - through personal encounters and cultural experiences at the heart of the region’s terroirs.
SentiNL: Preserving Biodiversity at the Edges of the Vines
What impact do the edges of vineyard plots have on biodiversity, vine health, and team wellbeing? A new participatory research project aims to find out.
Often grassy, sometimes mown short, left bare, or overflowing with tall stalks - the edges of vineyard plots come in many forms.
Long overlooked, these small areas bordering the vines can play an important role in supporting biodiversity - provided they are managed in a way that respects the habitats they host. That’s the aim of SentiNL, a participatory research project launched in spring 2025 on the hill of Corton (Côte-d’Or), co-led by the Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB) and the regional chapter of France’s bird protection league (LPO Bourgogne-Franche-Comté).
The project’s goal is to test and compare different approaches to maintaining these edge zones within a single winegrowing area, in order to measure their actual effects on biodiversity, vine performance, team wellbeing - and management costs.
Practices such as late mowing, high cutting (above 10 cm), or maintaining refuge areas by leaving them untouched from March to July will be implemented by volunteer winegrowers in a designated test zone. A second control zone, left unchanged, will allow comparisons.
Over three years, ecological monitoring will track indicator species - birds, insects, bats, butterflies - as well as certain vine pests. In parallel, interviews with winegrowers and their teams will help assess the social and economic impacts of various edge maintenance methods.
This field-based, scientific, and participatory project involves volunteer winegrowers from the Grand Cru appellations of the Corton hill and the villages of Pernand-Vergelesses, Aloxe-Corton, and Ladoix-Serrigny. Since spring 2025, Pierre-Louis Bouchard (LPO BFC) and Perrine Billaud (BIVB) have been jointly coordinating and conducting the project’s flora and fauna monitoring phase.
To learn more, watch the video: “Cultivating the Vine Within Its Landscape.”
Season 2 Filming Begins for the “Tasting Tips” Bourgogne Wine Web Series
New episodes this fall on social media, exploring tasting tips and terroir. Stay tuned - they’ll be released on Instagram and YouTube!
After a successful first season last year, The Tasting Tips web series - hosted by Maxime Dubois, Official Bourgogne Wines Educator - is returning this fall on the @vinsdebourgogne social media channels.
Designed to make wine tasting more accessible, this short and educational series from the Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB) targets a broad audience eager to better understand the fundamentals of Bourgogne wines.
Upcoming episodes will explore topics such as:
- Grape Varieties, Aromas, and Colors
- Understanding Wine Labels
- The Terroir of Bourgogne: What Is a Climat?
- Crémant de Bourgogne
- Pairing Food and Wine with Confidence (2 episodes dedicated to white and red wines)
Filming is underway - behind-the-scenes content will be shared soon on Instagram and Facebook.
A fun and thoughtfully produced format designed to raise awareness and make Bourgogne wines more approachable through engaging, educational content.
This year’s start to the growing season is unlike 2024 - in fact, things are off to a remarkably promising start across the board.
The pace in the vineyard has already been intense for the past two months. Thanks to alternating thunderstorms and full sun, the vines have taken off with exceptional speed. Vineyard work, especially canopy management, has had to be done on the fly.
And flowering arrived early - very early! While budbreak occurred around the average timing of the past 31 years (early April), mid-flowering was observed as early as May 31, making it one of the five earliest years on record. That said, flowering was a bit more gradual in later-ripening zones.
The very first flowers were spotted on May 26. Warm, almost summer-like temperatures during the Ascension weekend (May 29-31) led to explosive flowering in the earliest plots and kick-started bloom in the later ones. By mid-June, flowering was wrapping up in the Hautes Côtes and other later-developing sectors.
It generally takes 95 to 100 days from flowering to harvest maturity. If conditions continue as they are, harvest for Crémant de Bourgogne could begin around August 20, with still wines following 8 to 10 days later, from late August into early September.
But there’s still much to do between now and then - especially in protecting the vines from disease and supporting the vines in reaching their full potential.
Save the date! 165th Hospices de Beaune Wine Auction
The “Pièce des Présidents” will support technology projects for the inclusion of people with disabilities.
The 165th Hospices de Beaune Wine Auction - Bourgogne’s most iconic wine auction, known for its charitable aims - will take place on Sunday, November 16, 2025. This year, the charity barrel known as the Pièce des Présidents will support projects focused on disability and smart technologies, with the aim of improving autonomy, mobility, and inclusion.
The funds raised will go toward initiatives that combine technological innovation and solidarity, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence serving human needs.
In this year marking the 20th anniversary of France’s Equal Opportunity Act, the Hospices de Beaune will join the signatories of the Romain Jacob Charter - a national initiative to improve healthcare access for people with disabilities - reaffirming their commitment to inclusion and equal access to care.
As always, wines from the Hospices’ prestigious estate (60 hectares of exceptional appellations) will be auctioned, with the Pièce des Présidents as the highlight. This 165th edition promises to combine winemaking tradition, modern innovation, and generosity.
Saint-Vincent Tournante, January 24-25, 2026: See You in the Maranges!
The 2026 edition of the Saint-Vincent Tournante will take place on January 24-25 in the villages of Cheilly-lès-Maranges, Dezize-lès-Maranges, and Sampigny-lès-Maranges - a festive weekend celebrating conviviality, wine, and local winemaking traditions.
Tickets are now on sale, with two package options:
Adult kit (€20 in advance): tasting glass, tasting tickets, program, and map
Access to the celebration, decorated villages, and on-site activities remains free for all.
This edition also coincides with the 10th anniversary of the Climats of Bourgogne being listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, with the Saint-Vincent playing a role in the evening event on July 4 in Puligny-Montrachet.
On June 5, 2025, Thiébault Huber, winegrower in Meursault (Domaine Huber-Verdereau), was re-elected President of the Confédération des Appellations et des Vignerons de Bourgogne (CAVB) by its Board of Directors, beginning his third and final four-year term.
His previous terms have been marked by active union engagement and a steady expansion of the CAVB’s missions and services.
A major milestone of the 2021-2025 term was securing a new legal framework for the transfer of vineyard land - the result of extensive national collaboration with government authorities to support resilient, family-owned viticulture.
For Thiébault Huber, this final mandate will focus on unity and passing the torch:
“Being re-elected to lead the CAVB with such trust and unanimity is deeply gratifying. [...] This third term - my last - will be dedicated to transmission. We must restore meaning and visibility to collective engagement. We need to show the next generation that involvement matters, that it has a direct impact on their lives as winegrowers. The Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée is a shared heritage, and everyone should feel responsible for defending it.”
Bourgogne vs. Burgundy: to re-affirm their identity, the region and the producers are reverting back to the original French iteration of the name, Bourgogne.
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