Beaune and The Hospices

The Hospices de Beaune Wine Auction has met with growing success over the years, to the credit of Burgundy’s wines.

It’s raining cats and dogs outside. With my windscreen wipers on maximum speed and I can still hardly see the road. Heading for Beaune for two days. Two days going deep undercover into the cosseting world of Burgundy winemakers. The charming signs that signpost Burgundy’s grand cru vineyards usually also mean the end of your journey. But it’s raining so heavily, it’s difficult to read any sign. So I arrive a little late at the lunch-cum-huge-tasting at Maison Bichot’s winery in Nuits-Saint-Georges. Albéric Bichot, who was to be my host for the whole weekend, greeted me warmly. The celebrations have got off to a good start, I’ve quickly forgotten about the rain and wind!

To tell you about what’s special about this auction, the best and most obvious way seemed to be to experience it ourselves: do our homework, go there and bid hoping we might purchase a few bottles. All in the name of giving you the right keys so you can open these doors, which were once closed to all but those in the trade for nearly a century. So here’s the story of an extraordinary auction, that has gradually opened up to wine lovers and epicureans across the globe like you and me. Or the story of the world’s largest charity sale, where the bidding prices are a gauge of the Burgundy wine market. You’ve got it: this sale’s charity aspect is a great opportunity for honouring their wines too. For three days all over town, from the Hôtel-Dieu’s multicoloured roofs via the château at Clos de Vougeot, tastings and processions follow one after the other up until Sunday afternoon, when the first hammers can be heard slamming down from Christie’s auctioneers: François Curiel and Emmanuelle Vidal-Delagneau. But stop right there. Let’s take a few giant steps backwards to help us understand where this tradition came from, with a few important figures and dates worth remembering.

Very precious donations

It’s 1443 and the context is poverty and famine. Nicolas Rolin - then the Duke of Burgundy Philippe le Bon’s chancellor - and his wife Guigone de Salins decided to establish the Hôtel-Dieu to help these “poor sick people.” Hence, since the 15th Century, men and women have left assets to the Hospices de Beaune. Naturally enough in Burgundy, these donations were also made in the form of vines as no other possessions were as precious as this. Jean Plampays and his wife were the first to donate vines to the Hospices de Beaune in 1459. Hence how the Hospices’ estate was built up over the years as a reflection of the generosity of people in Burgundy and the region’s large number of top vineyard sites. The Hospices wine estate covers 61 hectares of highly regarded vineyards. They’re all choice sites as, with every donation, the Hospices only kept what was worthy of their reputation. These vines are dotted around virtually every village in the Côte de Beaune: Aloxe-Corton, Pernand-Vergelesses, Savigny-lès-Beaune, Beaune, Volnay, Pommard, Monthélie, Auxey-Duresses, Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet. Out of respect for their donators, the estate is managed with demanding quality standards. This determination means rigorous techniques, always searching for the ultimate diversity that makes up Burgundy’s winelands.

Let’s skip a few centuries: 1859. This date marks the first occasion when the Hospices’ wines were sold in auction. For many years, the auction was held in candlelight with the sale finally falling when the two candles burned themselves out. This traditional method is still used but only for a few barrels. The sale takes place every third Sunday in November: the 15 November in 2009.

Christie’s cuvees

Christie’s auction house has been running this unique auction for five years now and gives it international resonance. For example, by organising tastings throughout the world and opening it up to individuals who can bid by internet under the hammer of Anthony Hanson, Master of Wine and senior consultant for the international division of Christie’s wine department. We have a meeting with Anthony in late September to familiarise ourselves with the rules for this private sale and take the pulse of the 2009 blend. “This year’s harvest was very good. August was hot and sunny with enough but not too much rain. The 2009 harvest got underway on Monday 7th September and lasted about ten days. This year’s wines will generally speaking be excellent. After an uncertain year in many aspects, this harvest represents the light at the end of the tunnel!” Anthony told me, a real Burgundy specialist who spends time in the vineyards here while they’re picking with Rolland Masse, estate manager for the Hospices de Beaune for the last ten years and a key person at this event.

So I’m all ready to go but not before asking Anthony one last question: if I wanted to buy a single barrel, let it mature and have our own Hospices de Beaune cuvée NumberWine 2009 24 months down the line, what would you advise me to do? “At this stage, quality looks on a par for all wines. For a red, I’d probably pick a Volnay, Pommard or Beaune. For whites, I think Meursault and the grands crus will definitely be worth a look. But ask me again in three or four weeks time as, so far (25 September), it’s still too early make a definitive judgement.” Loud and clear, but I think I’ll focus on a lot of Volnay anyway that I hope to share with other wine lovers. I’ve a bit of a soft spot for Volnay, as we opened the door to France’s wine appellations with it in our first issue.

Back to 2009. Saturday evening and I am meeting Albéric Bichot at château Clos de Vougeot. For a dinner called “Chapter of the Three Glorious Ones from the Knights’ Brotherhood of the Tastevin,” that famous silverware tasting cup (they’re a bit like the Keepers of the Quaich…). I’m on the Volnay table! A good sign for tomorrow’s sale. A wonderful evening, one of those moments in life that you’ll cherish forever and proud to have experienced just once. But there’s no time to think this Cavaliers’ dinner is over, with lashings of humour, comments and catchphrases to follow from the Burgundy cadets. It might make you forget about tomorrow’s auction! Another article will be entirely devoted to this Brotherhood, which only has 11,000 Cavaliers around the world. The evening would end with the very vivid memory of these titanic Burgundies tasted for over four hours!!! Mr Bichot, a big thank you for this magic evening!!!!

Guide to surviving an auction

Back in Beaune and how the auction works. Albéric Bichot (for Maison Albert Bichot) is going to bid for me as he suggests we “pool” a barrel with a few of his private clients. Spot on. Just for the Volnay 1^er cru. But, in the end, what’s so special about this auction that everybody’s talking about? A little explanation.

We realise it’s about buying wine “en primeur” (as “futures”) therefore from this year’s vintage. Next, the sale is organised by cuvée: every wine up for grabs comes from the same vineyard parcels, and there are 44 cuvées. Each one has the name of the wine or village appellation and the historical donor (Beaune 1^er cru Cuvée Nicolas Rolin for example). So the Hospices’ wines aren’t sold in bottles - I’m sure you’re still with me - but in casks called “Pièces” or lots, the auction’s unit of measure. One cask contains 228 litres of wine, about 288 bottles. Hence the sound idea of pooling your resources, either by getting together with your family or friends, or even with strangers. This year, Maison Bichot offered to bid on behalf of private clients for a minimum of six bottles! So let’s imagine for a moment that you’ve just bought six bottles. After the sale comes the « ageing »: in late November, your wine will be transferred from the Hospices’s cellar to those belonging to a vintner, where the lengthy ageing stage begins. It takes 14 to 16 months for it to reach its peak before bottling it mid-2011.

So this is the time to personalise your own label and finally your bottles are delivered to your home. They’re dispatched in wooden cases of 6. You can even have your own logo on the wooden case if you like; it’s optional but some vintners will do this. All that’s left for you to do is drink them.

An auction accessible to all

Although wine merchants still represent most of the buyers, it would seem that this year has set the ball rolling for making a real effort to publicize and clarify how this auction works, and allow individuals like you and me to make the most of these unique Burgundy futures. “We need to work really hard at communicating about and making this auction more democratic, as it must sometimes seem like a closed shop for Joe public. It’s starting to seduce wine enthusiasts who didn’t know how to get involved nor what to buy and for how much,” Albéric Bichot told me, leading buyer at the auction. Christie’s have got the message and, for the last two years now (we’ve tried to support their policy with our limited means), buyers can bid on-line and live. Anthony Hanson confirmed to me the day after the auction that these bids represented 5 % of the total this year.

Back to the auction. The Hall, where the auctions take place, is crammed full. It’s raining outside and, nevertheless, several hundred curious people, gloaters, Burgundians and enthusiasts scramble in and press themselves against the immense Hall’s glass doors to take part in the sale somehow or other. What we described above seems to have been effective, since the prices literally took off this year. Certain lots were up 40 %. François Curiel passes the hammer over to Emmanuelle Vidal-Delagneau. The auction goes on for ages: 800 casks to get rid of as opposed to 544 in 2008. Hours go by and the auctions show no signs of letting up. I watch Albéric Bichot put his hand up or nod his head, unflappable. Somebody’s just asked for his advice with the auction in full swing. Will I get a few bottles of Volnay 1^er cru at the price I set the ceiling at? As I’m not bidding “live,” I won’t be pinned down until tomorrow…

Christie’s good word, by organising tastings across the globe, seems to have reaped its rewards, as enthusiasts around the world have put in their bid to buy a cask. It’s getting late, the auction’s nearly over. The Presidents’ cask, presented in mid-sale and the funds from which will go to one or several charities outside of the Hospices, was a huge success. Make a date for next year to enjoy this experience to the full like we did, and let yourself be a player in it.

Could Nicolas Rolin and Guigone de Salins ever have imagined how big this tradition could get when they founded these Hospices back in the Middle Ages?

Patricia Lepic