Definition: Hospices de Beaune

A charitable organisation dating back to 1443, when Nicolas Rodin, Chancellor of the Duchy of Burgundy, used his fortune to found a hospital for the sick and destitute. As benefactors continued to donate vineyards, the Hospices de Beaune now owns more than 60 hectares of vineyards throughout the Côte d'Or. They cultivate these vineyards and vinify their wines, which are bottled by merchants. Each plot produces a wine whose label now bears the name of the donor. At a spectacular auction held in Beaune every year since 1851 on the third Sunday in November, the prices achieved for quality wines, although extremely high, serve as a benchmark for the sale of the vintage in Burgundy.