The 2022 Hospices de Beaune

Join us in a share of a barrel of 2022 vintage Hospices de Beaune red Burgundy, which when bottled will have your name, your newborn's name, your company logo, or your favourite quote, etc, on the official label.

The morning before the barrel auction The Fine Wine Experience team gathered in the ancient Hôtel Dieu in the heart of Beaune to taste samples of all the 50 different cuvées. Each member tastes alone, marks up on their card their favourites and then there is some discussion with Jasper Morris MW and our senior consultant Anthony Hanson MW, who tastes with us. Our 'shopping list' is always longer than what we end up buying because much too depends on the auction itself. Some wines make sense for quality, but get fought over in a bidding war in the auction, and then just don’t make sense, quality for price-wise. We work hard to get the best deals from within our list at the auction, and we are very pleased this year with what we bought.

The great news is that we secured two of our team’s very favourite wines – by far the best of the Beaune 1er Crus (a real highlight of the auction), and our top Volnay 1er Cru pick from the highly esteemed ‘Santenots’ vineyard. These two wines are bound to offer many years of pleasure.

Élevage – or 'raising' the wine over many months of diligent care in the cellar is a very important factor in the final outcome, and this year we are delighted to be working again with the talented Guillaume Rouget of Domaine Emmanuel Rouget.

The Fine Wine Experience team has many years of experience in managing the labelling process, ensuring your name, company logo, or name in Chinese characters is handled correctly, to maximise the personalisation and value to you. Your bottles will display personalised yet official Hospices de Beaune labels.

We manage this process end to end for you, so that you have the best Hospices de Beaune selections for 2022, with the flexibility to buy in manageable ¼ barrel shares (72 bottles per share).

Hospices de Beaune - 
Beaune 1er Cru Cuvée Maurice Drouhin

Élevage SAS Rouget Père et Fils (HKD 1,500 per btl, minimum 72 btls)

Just as bright in colour as its confrères, but not the most saturated. Clean bright red fruit. Sometimes slow to show its qualities in the first weeks after the fermentation, this year Cuvée Maurice Drouhin has come flying out of the blocks. There is a crystalline character to the lighter raspberry fruit here, fine tannins and a long finish. – Jasper Morris MW

Hospices de Beaune - 
Volnay 1er Cru Santenots Cuvée Gauvain

Élevage SAS Rouget Père et Fils (HKD 1,900 per btl, minimum 72 btls)

Particularly concentrated in colour, the Cuvée Gauvain also shows a powerful if backward bouquet, a wealthy block of dark fruit from the clay-rich soils of the Santenots vineyard. Sumptuous dark raspberries start to emerge. A slight chocolate note, though the fresher side of red berry fruit dominates the finish. – Jasper Morris MW

Buyers of Hospices de Beaune barrels have the privilege to put their name as buyer on the label. We have especially arranged that you can put your name on the label of just one quarter of a barrel quantity (72 bottles). You can put your name, the name of your 2020-born child, the name of a couple who got engaged or married in 2020, or who celebrated a significant anniversary, or you can put the name of your company for corporate gifts. We will arrange this for you as part of the service.

You can put -

• Plain text (eg.Name, dates, etc) - which will be printed with Hospices de Beaune offical font and in black colour
• Chinese or other Asian text (eg. Name in Chinese or in other Asian language) - you can choose from 5 different fonts and will be printed in black.
• Graphics (eg.Company logo, text written in calligraphy, etc) - which will be printed in black and white. For the best result, please provide your graphics in .ai/ .psb file (for logos), and high resolution graphics no lesser than 300 dpi. 

BACKGROUND Q&A

Q: What is the Hospices de Beaune? 

A: Dating back many centuries with a mission to take care of the poor, today this organization acts as both a charity in Burgundy and a modern hospital. Vineyard land donations over the centuries make the Hospices a large wine domaine, but, uniquely, each year the Hospices de Beaune auctions off all its production in one day-long sale as young wine in barrel. 

Q: How do you get a barrel of Hospices de Beaune? 

A: By auction, which takes place on the third Sunday of each November, and the wine sold - by the barrel - is super young, coming from grapes picked the same year, so it's just a few weeks old. For decades only the Burgundy wine négociants themselves could go to this auction and buy the barrels of wine, but since 2005 it has been open to private clients – Christie’s for the next 17 vintages, and since 2021, Sotheby’s. To buy at this auction, you would still have to buy a whole barrel of the wine you want, organise for a Burgundy producer to take care of it for you and eventually bottle it. But through us, all this is taken care of.

Q: So, why buy Hospices de Beaune Burgundy?

A: First, the wines are good, and indeed we could call the Hospices de Beaune a 'domaine on the rise', with great strides being made by winemaker Ludivine Griveau. They are not as spectacular as the very best names in Burgundy, but the wines are well-made, deliciously drinkable and enjoyable, and ageworthy too. Many today - including our 2022 selections, I would buy on wine quality alone. However, key reasons to get involved are also to have your own name on the label and to support this great charity in the process.

Personally, I have been buying and serving these wines since 2007. I’ve been happy with the wines.

Q: If the wine in barrel is not ready to bottle, what happens next?

A: Harvest was in August/September, we bought your wine in November, and in January 2022 the wine will go in barrel to Guillaume Rouget. For the next year or so, tending to your wine will be his responsibility - changing the barrel if needed, topping up, racking, and finally bottling, will be down to him. For years we selected leading Burgundy winemakers carefully, knowing from our experience of their cellars, and from their reputations that they are the best possible choices. Between the coming January and April 2023, Guillaume's team will judge the best time to bottle your wine. Then, it will be ready for shipping to Hong Kong. We will take care of every step for you, delivering the wine to your home or cellar in Hong Kong.

Q: How can I personalise the label? 

A: Buyers of Hospices de Beaune barrels have the privilege to put their name as buyer on the label. We have especially arranged that you can put your name on the label of just one quarter of a barrel quantity (72 bottles). You can put your name, the name of your 2020-born child, the name of a couple who got engaged or married in 2020, or who celebrated a significant anniversary, or you can put the name of your company for corporate gifts. We will arrange this for you as part of the service. Read our Personalised Label section for more details.

Q: What makes these bottles special?

A: I have found over the years that these wines have provided a lot of fun – both opening at family gatherings, parties, and so on, not to mention seeing the wine’s evolution in bottle. They’ve made perfect gifts too. You may choose to do the same, or you may wish to mark the occasion of the birth of a child, a marriage, an anniversary, an engagement, and so on. This purchase of a share of a barrel of Hospices de Beaune is ideal as you will have a wine to enjoy and to keep, and it will have your name (or the child’s name, or the couple’s names) printed officially on the label.

Please let us know if you’d like to join in our 2022 barrels.