Musée des Vins de Bourgogne

Beaune is the wine capital of Burgundy, and the Musée des Vins de Bourgogne tells the story of the region's vineyards in a building that matches the subject. It occupies the former residence of the Dukes of Burgundy in the old town, on the Rue d'Enfer, a house of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries with a courtyard and old cellars. The dukes were great patrons and consumers of wine, and their link to the town's wine trade goes back to the Middle Ages, when Burgundy wines were served at the most important tables in Europe.

The museum's subject is the culture of the vine and wine in Burgundy, from the labour in the vineyards to the work in the cellar. It looks at how the grapes are grown, how the harvest is organised, how the wine is made and how it is stored and transported. The vat room, with its collection of old wine presses, is one of the highlights. These huge wooden presses, some of them several centuries old, give a sense of the scale of the work before modern machinery, and they show how much craft went into every bottle. Tools used by vine growers and coopers, labels and bottles complete the picture.

The museum also explains the idea of the climats, the individually named parcels of vineyard that are the basis of Burgundy's classification. Over centuries, monks and growers observed that wine from different plots, even a few metres apart, had different characters, and they gave each plot a name and a reputation. This system, which underlies the rankings from regional wines to village, Premier Cru and Grand Cru, was recognised by UNESCO in 2015 as the Climats of the Burgundy Vineyards, a World Heritage site. The two main grapes are Pinot Noir for red wine and Chardonnay for white, and the museum helps visitors to understand why the same grape tastes so different from one village to the next.

The museum has been temporarily closed at times, so check its status before you plan the visit. Nearby, the Cité des Climats et Vins de Bourgogne offers a larger and more recent presentation of the same theme, with exhibitions and a film. Where the museum is open, workshops for adults and children and conferences on wine are held through the year, and a shop sells related items.

It suits wine lovers, curious beginners and families who want a gentler way into the subject than a cellar tasting. In Beaune, the Hospices de Beaune, the Clos de Vougeot a short drive away and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Beaune are natural companions, and the Cave de l'Abbaye is a good place for tasting.