Best Wine Tours from Beaune, Burgundy (My 3 Favorites!)
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Visiting Beaune soon? Let’s skip to the best part: the wine! Here are the best Burgundy wine tours from Beaune.
The charming town of Beaune, France, sits right in the heart of Burgundy’s legendary Côte d’Or wine region, surrounded by some of the world’s most prestigious wine villages and vineyards. So, in other words, it’s the perfect base for tasting your way along the Route des Grands Crus.
Before my recent trip, I did a lot of research on the best wine tours from Beaune, with a little checklist in mind.
I was looking for the full Burgundy experience: charming wine villages, centuries-old cellars, beautiful vineyard views, and plenty of Premier Crus and Grand Crus.
I also wanted to explore both sides of the Côte d’Or: the Côte de Beaune, famous for its Chardonnay, and the Côte de Nuits, home to the world’s best Pinot Noir.
So, we dedicated two full days of our Beaune itinerary to wine country, taking a couple of very different Burgundy wine tours.
We visited family-run cellars and well-known wineries, learned about Burgundy’s famously complex terroir, e-biked through vineyards, explored tiny wine villages, and tasted an absurd number of wines – including more than our fair share of Premier Crus and Grand Crus. And it was such an incredible trip that I’m already planning another…
If you want to spend a day (or two!) exploring Burgundian wine country, you’re in the right place. Read on for my favorite wine tours from Beaune, along with some must-know tips!
Quick Picks: 3 Best Wine Tours from Beaune
Short on time? Here are my top picks for the best Beaune wine tours. Read on for the details, then check out my guide to the best things to do in Beaune.
- Burgundy Grand Crus Route Day Tour from Beaune: If you only have time for one wine tour, book this. It includes three fantastic cellar visits, an excellent lineup of Bourgogne, Village, Premier Cru, and Grand Cru wines, time for a three-course lunch in a tiny wine village (extra expense), and a knowledgeable guide and driver. This is my favorite tour!
- Burgundy Bike Tour with Wine Tasting: This fun bike tour through the Côte de Beaune includes two winery visits and three-course lunch in a beautiful setting. We upgraded to e-bikes and did not regret it! Runs April through October.
- Best of Burgundy Full-Day Private Tour: This customizable full-day experience covers the Côte de Beaune and the Côte de Nuits, with three winery visits, up to 20 Premier Cru and Grand Cru wines, and lunch at a Burgundy wine estate. If you want the ultimate Burgundy wine experience, this is it!
Wine-Tasting in the Côte d’Or
Before we dive into Beaune’s best wine tours, let me give you the Burgundy wine 411.
The Côte d’Or (which means “Golden Slope”) is the crown jewel of Burgundy’s wine country. It’s home to some of the world’s most celebrated vineyards and wine villages, thanks to its perfect combination of limestone-rich soils, elevation, aspect, and climate.
The Côte d’Or is split into two distinct sub-regions:
- Côte de Nuits: Best known for its exceptional Pinot Noir, including some of Burgundy’s most prestigious, powerful, structured, and age-worthy reds.
- Côte de Beaune: Famous for its Chardonnay, particularly the legendary white wines of villages like Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet, and Chassagne-Montrachet, as well as excellent, lighter-bodied Pinot Noir.
MADDY’S NOTE: Planning a wine-focused trip? See my guide to taking a Champagne day trip from Paris too.
Burgundy’s Route des Grands Crus
Running through the Côte d’Or is Burgundy’s famous Route des Grands Crus.
This legendary 37-mile (60-kilometer) wine route begins in Dijon, passes through 37 different wine villages (including Meursault, Pommard, Vougeot, and Nuits-Saint-Georges), and ends in Santenay.
And Beaune? Well, it’s right in the heart of it all… So, yes, what you’re thinking is correct: Beaune is the perfect base for a few wine-focused day trips.
From there, you can spend a day exploring the vineyards, villages, and wineries of either the Côte de Beaune or the Côte de Nuits – preferably with someone else doing the driving… Though biking is also an option!
Best Wine Tours from Beaune
If you’re new to Burgundy wine – and really, even if you’re not – I highly recommend booking a guided wine tour.
Burgundy’s appellations, classifications, and terroir can be a lot to wrap your head around. Having an expert drive you to some of the Côte d’Or’s best cellars and explain what you’re drinking makes the experience so, so much better.
Here are the three Burgundy wine tours from Beaune I recommend.
1. Burgundy Grand Crus Route Day Tour
This small-group Burgundy Grand Crus Route Day Tour was a dream come true for me. Even if that sounds a little dramatic.
The listing says it includes 14 tastings, but by my count, we tried 25 different wines, including five Grand Crus and twelve Premier Crus. What an over-delivery, in the best possible way.
Our day began in Beaune, where our guide Emmanuel gave us an introduction to Burgundy wine, explaining the Bourgogne, Village, Premier Cru, and Grand Cru classifications, Burgundy’s different wine regions, and the hyper-importance of terroir.
From there, we hit three different cellars in Beaune (Domaine de Bellene), Vougeot (Caveau des Musignys), and Nuits-Saint-Georges (Caveau Moillard Nuits-Saint-Georges) for generous, diverse tastings spanning the Côte d’Or.
And along the way, we had a wine-soaked three-course lunch in a tiny village, drove through the scenic vineyards of the Côte d’Or, and stopped to peek at the historic Clos de Vougeot.
Now, about the wine lineup: It. Was. Incredible. We tasted everything from Bourgogne Blanc and Pinot Noir, to Premier Crus from Meursault, Chassagne-Montrachet, Volnay, and Gevrey-Chambertin, to some seriously special Grand Crus including Corton, Corton-Charlemagne, and Clos de Vougeot.
At our final stop, the wines were so fantastic that everyone was shipping bottles home. We couldn’t resist either! (Especially the Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru 2021 and the Moillard-Grivot Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru “Aux Boudots” 2021… Oh, my goodness.)
Learning how age and aeration hugely affect Burgundy wine was invaluable, too. By our the end of the day, I actually felt like I could tell when a wine was too young, needed more time to open up, or was at its prime. We had a lot of practice, after all!
If you only have time for one wine day trip from Beaune, book this one. It was simply: fabulous.
2. Burgundy Bike Tour with Wine Tastings
This small-group Burgundy Bike Tour with Wine Tasting was such a fun, active change of pace from the other tour we did. If you have time, I highly recommend booking both!
While the Burgundy Grand Crus Route Day Tour took us north through the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits, this bike tour headed south along the Route des Grands Crus, purely through the Côte de Beaune region.
We biked along bike paths and narrow, traffic-free roads through the vineyards, discovering quaint wine villages like Pommard, Volnay, and Meursault.
Along the journey, we stopped at two family-run wineries – including the Domaine Famille Picard within the historic Château de Chassagne-Montrachet. Our tastings spanned Bourgogne, Village, and even some Premier Cru reds and whites.
We also enjoyed a delicious three-course lunch (and more wine!) on the outdoor terrace of a beautiful restaurant in the village of Puligny-Montrachet.
The wine on this tour was fantastic, but the cycling itself was a highlight! Biking through the vineyards, passing by beautiful châteaux, rolling through tiny villages, and enjoying the mid-April sunshine made for a day I won’t soon forget.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the route is mostly flat, with some little hills along the way. Still, I’d classify this route as “easy.” Almost anyone can do it. My husband and I upgraded to e-bikes to make our day easy-breezy, and I recommend you do the same!
Book your Burgundy Bike Tour with Wine Tasting from Beaune here.
MADDY’S NOTE: This tour only runs April through October!
Self-Guided Bike Day Trip
It’s also possible to explore Burgundy’s wine country on a self-guided e-bike day trip. There are a few rental shops in town, and the bike trails begin just outside Beaune’s city walls, connecting many of the region’s wine villages.
If I were you, I’d head all the way south to Santenay first, then make your way back toward Beaune, stopping in the villages and domaines along the way.
I did this on a previous trip… It was a big day (we barely made it back before the e-bike rental shop closed!), and we winged it for our tastings without reservations, but it was still so much fun!
That said, I preferred going on this Burgundy Bike Tour with a knowledgeable guide – and having all of our tastings organized for us.
3. The Best of Burgundy Full-Day Private Tour
If you want a full-day, private wine tour that goes all-in on Burgundy’s prestigious wines, this Best of Burgundy Full-Day Private Tour is the one.
This customizable tour follows the Grands Crus Wine Road through both the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits, with stops at three wineries for expert-led tastings of up to 20 Premier Cru and Grand Cru wines. It also includes a three-course lunch at a Burgundy wine estate.
Throughout the day, you’ll explore some of Burgundy’s most famous wine villages and appellations, including Vosne-Romanée, Gevrey-Chambertin, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Chambolle-Musigny, and Morey-Saint-Denis, and visit private cellars for tastings of wines that are near-impossible to find outside Burgundy.
Book your Best of Burgundy Full-Day Private Tour from Beaune here.
FAQs: Wine Tours from Beaune, Burgundy
If you only have time for one, I recommend this small-group Burgundy Grand Crus Route Day Tour. It was my favorite of the wine tours I took from Beaune, thanks to the excellent wine tastings, our knowledgeable guide Emmanuel, multiple cellar visits, a beautiful drive through the vineyards, and our leisurely three-course lunch in a small wine village. The listing said we’d have 14 tastings, but we actually had 25 (including 12 Premier Crus and 5 Grand Crus!).
Of course! You can rent a car or e-bike and visit wineries independently. Taxis and Ubers are also readily available in Beaune and the surrounding villages – even late into the evening. You can even take public transportation to some wine villages, though I don’t really recommend that. That said, many Burgundy domaines require reservations, so planning ahead is essential if you want a seamless day of tasting.
Beaune is ideally located for exploring both the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits, the two main wine-producing sub-regions of the Côte d’Or. The Côte de Beaune is particularly famous for Chardonnay, while the Côte de Nuits is renowned for exceptional Pinot Noir. If possible, you should visit both!
Yes! You can reach Beaune by train from hubs like Lyon, Dijon, and Paris. Once you arrive, you can book a wine tour that includes transportation from Beaune, so you can spend the day tasting without worrying about driving. I recommend this Burgundy Grand Crus Route Day Tour from Beaune. You can also explore the vineyards by e-bike, either independently or with a guided cycling tour like this Burgundy Bike Tour with Wine Tasting from Beaune. Within the town of Beaune, there are also plenty of wine bars and cellars you can visit.
It depends on the tour. The tours featured in this guide visit two or three wineries or cellars, with multiple tastings at each stop. Some full-day tours can include 20 or more individual wines!
Yep! Beaune is the perfect base for exploring the Route des Grands Crus. The famous wine route runs between Dijon and Santenay, passing through dozens of Burgundy’s most celebrated wine villages and vineyards. Beaune is right in the middle of it all – with plenty of tours departing daily, and lots to do when you need a break from wine-tasting!
If you’re not staying in Beaune, you can easily take a Burgundy wine tour from Dijon, the northern starting point of the Route des Grands Crus. If I were you, I’d go with this Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune Vineyards Wine Tour from Dijon or this 1 Day E-Bike and Wine Tour in Cote de Nuits from Dijon.
