Bourgogne-Franche-Comté

Bourgogne-Franche-Comté is a region of eastern France, formed in 2016 from Burgundy and Franche-Comté. Burgundy’s vineyards run south from Dijon along the Côte d’Or, where Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are the main grapes.

Two wine events in this guide are here. In November, Beaune holds the weekend of the Hospices de Beaune wine auction. At the end of January, the Saint-Vincent Tournante, a winegrowers’ festival, moves to a different village each year: Volnay, just outside Beaune, in 2027.

Getting around

High-speed TGV trains link Paris with Dijon, and regional trains run south from Dijon to Beaune. A car is useful for the wine villages.

The Climats, Burgundy's named vineyard plots

In Burgundy a Climat is a precisely marked vineyard plot with its own microclimate and geology, named over the centuries and ranked in the hierarchy of Regional, Village, Premier Cru and Grand Cru. The association that manages the UNESCO World Heritage listing counts over one thousand named Climats along the 60 kilometres of vines from Dijon to Santenay, just south of Beaune. The listed area covers 40 municipalities, Beaune, Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, Gevrey-Chambertin and Vosne-Romanée among them, with a buffer zone of 64 more.

Comté, the cheese of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté's eastern half

East of the vineyards, the Jura mountains produce Comté, a raw-milk, cooked pressed cheese with a protected designation of origin. Its interprofessional body gives the shape of the sector:

• about 2,400 farms supply the milk, from Montbéliarde and French Simmental cows only, the two breeds allowed
• around 140 village dairies, the fruitières, make the cheese every day
• 14 maturing houses age the wheels, each for at least 4 months, some for 12, 18 or 24 months and more
• the terroir is the Jura massif, across the Doubs, the Jura and the Ain, plus a few communes of Saône-et-Loire.