Photography courtesy of Château Philippe le Hardi


feature / Sarah Marsh MW / Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes


Côtes. So, it came as a surprise in my conversation with Laurent Delaunay to discover that altitude is not defined for the Hautes-Côtes appellation. Indeed, in Maranges, Domaine Chevot has a Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes vineyard that is lower than its regular Bourgogne. In 2015, as part of the creation of a new regional appellation


Bourgogne Côte d’Or, it seems that some Bourgogne Hautes- Côtes vineyards were reconsidered and determined to be more in keeping with Bourgogne Côte d’Or. This included, for example, some higher elevation vineyards in Chambolle- Musigny, which were switched to the newly minted regional AC. In 2017, the 16ha (40-acre) Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes vineyard on the edge of St-Aubin, above Gamay, called Les Foires, belonging to Domaine Philippe le Hardi, was split and reclassified: 12ha (30 acres) on a 28-degree slope became Bourgogne Côte d’Or Clos de la Chaise Dieu Monopole, while 4ha (10 acres) at the top, at 425m (1,395ft), on the plateau’s deeper soil, remained Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes. “It is unusual to have a Bourgogne on such a steep slope, but it was conceded to be more characteristic of Bourgogne Côte d’Or,” remarks Jean-Philippe Archambaud. Tasting the 2023s, they are very different. The Hautes-Côtes is fuller-bodied, with peachy fruit generosity up front, but it tightens to a pithy finish, while the Bourgogne from the slope is straighter, edgy, and citrus. Both contain a little Pinot Blanc and Pinot Beurot in the blend. Although it is just an entry-level wine, Philippe le Hardi already has to allocate the small quantity of Hautes-Côtes de Beaune Les Foires.


Time to fulfill its unique historic potential? Regional wines are a producer’s calling card and generally have good volume and availability. “Burgundy is expensive and difficult to buy, and at Domaine de l’Arlot we have many monopolies and grands crus,” observes Géraldine Godot, “so it’s increasingly important now to have a wine with a good position for quality and price. It is why more and more producers want to plant in the Hautes-Côtes.” Anne Gros remarks, “It is my opportunity to connect with new people and show my wine, even though it costs me a lot to produce, as it is planted at 10,000 vines per hectare.” “We had no regional wine to offer customers,” says Caroline Lestimé, who began the Hautes-Côtes Chardonnay project against the wishes of her father: “I had to fight for it”—which is why she labeled Sous Eguisons under her own name from 2007 until the current vintage.


For producers located in the Côte de Nuits, there is the added advantage of offering a white wine to customers. Jean-Nicolas Méo remarks, “It is very significant to have a white in our portfolio. It gives us an experience with Chardonnay in the best white-wine region in the world. A white Hautes-Côtes de Nuits is not that frequent. Mimicking Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune, people expect Hautes-Côtes de Nuits to be red.” From another perspective, purchasing fruit from the


Hautes-Côtes is a cost-effective and practical way for new micro-négociants, such as François and Julien Millet, to build their portfolios and establish a reputation, when compared with the high price and scarcity of fruit from the Côte d’Or. The Millets have some pretty wines from Segros, west of Nuits- St-Georges. To put price in context, Thibault Marion tells me that the cost of Hautes-Côtes de Beaune grapes is “about one third that of village Volnay and slightly more expensive than Bourgogne from the Côte d’Or.” Meanwhile, Laurent Delaunay has grander ambitions. He hopes to become a reference point for Hautes-Côtes wine. “Most négociants have emblematic wines, produced in volume, on which you can develop your image. We are the only négociant based in the Hautes-Côtes.” He intends to expand his portfolio of five Hautes-Côtes de Nuits, partly through purchasing some vineyards over the next four years. But he is by no means the only one prospecting for vineyards


to rent, buy, or plant in the Hautes-Côtes. Christian Seely is on the prowl for AXA and Arlot. So, too, is Jean-Michel Chartron, who says “I will expand there when I can. Now I need to buy 50hl of wine from the Hautes-Côtes, but I would like to find land to have vines. On the Hautes-Côtes, it is affordable to buy land and to make an affordable wine. The price of the land is nothing by comparison with the Côte d’Or. So, for young vignerons who are looking for land, it is affordable and available, while for established domaines, we are looking for good value. We started making wine in the Hautes-Côtes in 1998—the same strategy as investing in Rully or St-Aubin in the early ’90s, when there was less competition and land was easier to find. Even in the Chalonnais now, it is difficult to buy.” He estimates the current price of Hautes-Côtes at €3,000 per


ouvrée, or €75,000 per hectare. (One ouvrée is 428 sq m, and there are 24 in a hectare.) “That’s not far from regional vines in the Côte d’Or, which cost €3,000–4,000 per ouvrée, while village Puligny is €60,000–70,000, even €100,000 per ouvrée.” Nicolas Thevenot considers that “even now, the price of land is still connected to the business. One hectare of planted vineyard costs €40,000–100,000. There have been a few transactions recently at €100,000, but more at around €57,000. There are people who don’t want to pay this price on the Hautes-Côtes, which is good for us. We can still offer good value, especially cellar-door. And on the Hautes-Côtes, lots of the cellars are open. We sell about one third of bottles this way.” If the land is not planted, however, it’s not straightforward


to plant: You need planting rights. At Jean-Noël Gagnard, Caroline Lestimé pulled out some vines on the plain below Chassagne in order to plant in the Hautes-Côtes. And in 1990, when Méo-Camuzet wanted to plant the fallow land of Clos Philibert, which had been passed down through the family,


Left: One of the compelling Hautes-Côtes wines from Château Philippe le Hardi (opposite), being dynamically run by Jean-Philippe Archambaud.


118 | THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 87 | 2025


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