What wine is the Côte de Beaune known for?

White Burgundy, above all — the greatest Chardonnay on earth, from the villages of Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet. Unlike the red-only Côte de Nuits to the north, the Côte de Beaune makes both colours: world-benchmark whites plus serious, structured Pinot Noir in Pommard and Volnay, and the great red hill of Corton. Beaune, the wine capital, sits in the middle as your base.

What are the main white-wine villages of the Côte de Beaune?

The 'Golden Triangle' of Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet, running along the southern stretch of the slope. Meursault is the broad, nutty, buttery one; Puligny is the taut, mineral, precise one; Chassagne sits between and also makes fine red. Above them all sit the white Grands Crus — Le Montrachet itself, shared between Puligny and Chassagne, plus Corton-Charlemagne on the great hill to the north.

Does the Côte de Beaune make red wine?

Yes, and some of Burgundy's best. Pommard makes the sturdiest, most tannic red on the slope; neighbouring Volnay makes the most elegant and perfumed. The hill of Corton holds the Côte de Beaune's only red Grand Cru. So while the region's fame rests on white, a Volnay or Pommard from a good domaine is benchmark Pinot Noir — often at gentler prices than the equivalent Côte de Nuits name.

Where should you base yourself in the Côte de Beaune?

Beaune, without question — a walled medieval town built on wine money, home to the Hospices de Beaune, the great négociant cellars, and an easy reach to every village on the slope. It's walkable, well-fed, and central to both halves of the Côte d'Or. Many of the most visitor-ready cellars in all Burgundy are the merchant houses tunnelled beneath its streets.

The Côte de Beaune: The World's Greatest White

Cross the invisible line below Nuits-Saint-Georges and Burgundy changes register. The reds of the Côte de Nuits soften and step back; a new colour takes the crown. The Côte de Beaune is the southern half of the Côte d'Or, and while it makes both reds and whites, it exists in the world's imagination for one thing: the greatest white wine ever made from Chardonnay. This is where a grape that "barely tastes of itself" becomes the most profound white on earth — because here, more than anywhere, it tastes of the ground.

At the centre sits Beaune, the honey-stoned wine capital, and it's your base for everything that follows. Let's take the slope by colour, then by village.

The great hill: Corton

Start at the northern gateway, where a single dome-shaped hill above Aloxe-Corton does something no other site in Burgundy manages: it makes a great red Grand Cru and a great white one, side by side. The red is Corton — the Côte de Beaune's only red Grand Cru, broad-shouldered and slow to open. The white is Corton-Charlemagne, one of the region's largest and most majestic white crus, named for the emperor said to have owned the slope. One hill, two summits, two colours. It's the perfect overture to a côte that refuses to choose.

Pommard & Volnay: the reds worth crossing for

Before the whites take over, two neighbouring villages make the case that the Côte de Beaune's Pinot Noir is no afterthought. Pommard is the strongman — dark, tannic, built to age, the sturdiest red on this half of the slope. Volnay, right beside it, is its opposite: the most delicate, perfumed, silk-textured red in the Côte de Beaune, closer in spirit to Chambolle up north. The reference name in Volnay is Domaine de Montille, while Château de Pommard, on the edge of its village, is one of the more welcoming grand estates to actually visit. Taste the two villages back to back and you've learned the whole red argument of the Côte de Beaune in an afternoon.

The Golden Triangle: Meursault, Puligny, Chassagne

Now the reason the world genuflects. Three villages in a row along the southern slope make the benchmark against which every ambitious Chardonnay on earth is measured.

Meursault is the broad, generous one — nutty, buttery, hazelnut-rich, wide across the palate. It has, curiously, no Grand Cru, yet its greatest Premier Crus (Perrières above all) drink like one. This is the home of two legends, Domaine des Comtes Lafon and the near-mythical Domaine Coche-Dury, plus the visitor-friendly Château de Meursault with its grand cellars.

Puligny-Montrachet is Meursault's mirror image — taut, mineral, precise, all tension and cut, a wine that hums rather than swells. It shares the pinnacle white Grands Crus with its southern neighbour: Le Montrachet itself, the single most celebrated dry white vineyard in the world, flanked by Chevalier-Montrachet and Bâtard-Montrachet. The house that defines Puligny is Domaine Leflaive, the biodynamic standard-bearer for white Burgundy.

Chassagne-Montrachet rounds out the triangle, sharing the Montrachet crown and making both colours — its whites a touch broader than Puligny's, its reds honest and underrated.

The wings: where the value hides

Don't overlook the villages either side of the famous three. On the northern shoulder, Savigny-lès-Beaune and Pernand-Vergelesses make sappy, aromatic reds and fine whites for a fraction of the golden-name prices — the smart drinker's Côte de Beaune. At the southern tail, Santenay and Maranges turn out sturdy, earthy Pinot that closes the slope on a value note. And the everyday Côte de Beaune-Villages and Bourgogne wines from these edges, made by growers who also farm the grand crus, are the canniest way to taste the region's hand without the region's markup — exactly the lesson from the classification: buy the humble bottle from the great address.

Meursault is a warm embrace; Puligny is a cold, clear morning. Same grape, two villages apart, and the whole spectrum of great white wine strung between them.

Beaune: base camp and the négociant heartland

Sitting between the reds and the whites is Beaune itself — walled, medieval, built entirely on wine, and crowned by the Hospices de Beaune, the charity hospital whose glittering roof is the postcard of the region and whose November auction still helps set the tone for a whole vintage. Beaune is also the capital of the négociants, the merchant houses whose cellars tunnel beneath the old town: Bouchard Père & Fils, Joseph Drouhin, Louis Jadot and Albert Bichot among them. These are the single easiest way to taste widely and well — one grand cellar plus a small family domaine and you've had the range in a day. Stay here, walk out each morning, and the whole slope is yours.

We've now walked the entire Côte d'Or, north to south, red to white. But Burgundy doesn't stop at the golden slope. An hour north, closer to Champagne than to Beaune, a cool outlier makes Chardonnay of a completely different character — leaner, saltier, cut from fossil-studded chalk. Part 5 goes to Chablis.