Musée du Vin de Bourgogne

The Musée du Vin de Bourgogne in Beaune is housed in the Hôtel des Ducs de Bourgogne, a late medieval town residence of the dukes who ruled Burgundy and made Beaune one of their favourite towns. The building, on the rue d'Enfer in the old centre, has stone walls, steep roofs and a courtyard that give it a strong sense of the period, and its large vaulted rooms and cellars were naturally suited to a museum about wine. Opening arrangements have changed in recent years and the museum has at times been closed, so check its current status with the Beaune tourist office before planning a visit around it.

The museum's theme is the story of Burgundian wine from the vineyard to the glass. It tells how the monks of the Middle Ages, especially the Cistercians and Benedictines, cleared and tended the slopes, and how the dukes and later the great merchants spread the reputation of the region's wines across Europe. The displays show the tools of the winegrower's year, from pruning knives and hoes to harvest baskets, and the cooper's equipment for making barrels, and the vat room holds old wine presses, huge timber machines that crushed the grapes by the weight of heavy beams and screws. Seen up close, they explain how much human effort lay behind each bottle.

The region has a particular way of describing its vineyards, using the word climats for the small, precisely named plots of land, each with its own soil, slope and exposure. The Climats du Vignoble de Bourgogne were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2015, recognising the way that generations of growers shaped and named the landscape. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are the two main grapes, and the difference between neighbouring plots can be striking. The museum helps visitors grasp this idea before they taste the wines or drive through the vineyards of the Côte de Beaune.

Beaune is the capital of Burgundy wine, and its streets are full of related sights. The Hospices de Beaune, also called the Hôtel-Dieu, is a fifteenth-century hospital with a famous roof of coloured glazed tiles, and each November it holds a charity wine auction that is among the best-known in the world. The Église Notre-Dame de Beaune has Romanesque and Gothic parts and a set of fine medieval tapestries, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Beaune holds local art and archaeology. Cellars such as the Cave de l'Abbaye offer tastings, and the Clos de Vougeot, a historic walled vineyard and château, lies a short drive north.

The museum suits wine lovers and history enthusiasts. A visit can be combined with a tasting in the town, and a stroll around the ramparts of Beaune.