Route des Grands Crus – The Ultimate Burgundy Road Trip

Route des Grands Crus – Best Burgundy Wine Route

The Burgundy Wine Region in Eastern France is a fascinating area to visit, especially if you like wine! The Burgundy Wine Region is divided into five wine production areas: Chablis and Grand Auxerrois, Côte de Nuits, Côte de Beaune, Côte Chalonnaise, and Mâconnais.

The Burgundy wine country is best explored by taking one of the Burgundy Wine Routes. From Beaune to Dijon, this Burgundy road trip itinerary will follow part of the Route des Grands Crus, combining culture, sightseeing, and wine.

This Burgundy road trip itinerary takes four days and visits small towns, historical sights, and several wine cellars for wine tasting and shopping. The road distances are short, but there’s no rush: the Burgundy Wine Region is a beautiful and relaxing area to explore, and because wine tastings + driving are not easy to combine!

This 4-day Burgundy itinerary is one of the best road trips in France. Read more about road-tripping in France:

Route des Grands Crus Burgundy Road Trip – Overview

• Start: Beaune
• Finish: Dijon
• Duration: 4 days
• Suggested Route: Beaune – Vougeot – Dijon
• Total distance: 80 km, 2-3 hours drive in total
• Regions covered: Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
• Best for: sightseeing, landscapes, small towns, food, and wine.

Route des Grands Crus Road Trip Itinerary Day by Day

• Day 0: Arrival in Beaune
• Day 1: Beaune
• Day 2: Beaune to Vougeot (Côte de Nuits)
• Day 3: Vougeot to Dijon
• Day 4: Dijon

Road Trip Route des Grands Crus – Map

This self-guided road trip through the Route des Grands Crus covers the Côte de Nuits wine production area, and it goes from Beaune to Dijon, but you can also drive it in the opposite direction.

Click here to view this Route des Grands Crus Google Maps

About the Route des Grands Crus – Burgundy Wine Region

The Route des Grands Crus was the first wine route created in France. Inaugurated in 1937, the Route des Grands Crus invented wine tourism in France!

The Route des Grands Crus in Burgundy is a narrow strip of land, 60 km long and 2 km wide, from Dijon to Beaune in the department of Côte d’Or. This Burgundy wine trail is well marked with brown background signs showing a white grape cluster. The trail crosses small wine-growing villages, includes two cities, and allows you to discover beautiful landmarks in France while tasting some of the best Burgundy wines.

The Route des Grands Crus Burgundy is divided into two parts:

The first part (from Dijon to Corgoloin) visits the Côte de Nuits wine production area, which contains a string of the greatest red wines in the world, including 24 of Burgundy’s 33 Grands Crus such as Romanée-Conti, Clos de Vougeot, and Chambertin.

The second part (between Corgoloin and Beaune on to Santenay) visits the Côte de Beaune wine production area. Here, you will find some of the finest dry white wines in the world, such as Corton Charlemagne, Meursault, and Montrachet.

Burgundy Wine Region

Bourgogne, Burgundy in English, is a historical region that is today part of the French region Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. This region has soil and climatic conditions particularly favorable to viticulture, and it produces some of the best wines in the world.

The region that comprises the Burgundian vineyard cannot be extended, and it represents only 3% of the wine regions in France and a mere 0.3% of the world’s wine production. That’s one of the reasons why buying a bottle of (good) Burgundy wine is a luxury!

The main grape varieties in Burgundy are Chardonnay for the whites and Pinot Noir for the reds.

Traditionally, Burgundy winegrowers are known for their humble and traditional spirit. However, the rarity of certain exceptional cuvées arouses a real passion on the international scene.

TIP: If you are planning to bring a few bottles home (who could resist?!), make sure you pack your wine properly so it arrives safely home!

Route des Grands Crus Burgundy – Itinerary 4 Days

This Burgundy road trip starts from Beaune, one of the best places to visit in Burgundy. Regional trains connect Beaune to Dijon, the capital of Burgundy, every half an hour. You can travel to Dijon from a good part of the major French cities, like Paris, Lyon, and Marseille – Click here to buy your train tickets to Dijon

There are around 15 daily trains from Paris to Dijon, and the journey usually takes about 1 hour and 40 minutes one way.

For this Burgundy itinerary, you don’t need the car until day 2, so if you are taking a self-drive vacation to the Burgundy Wine Region in a rental car, wait until then to pick up your rental car in Beaune – Click here to rent a car in Beaune

If this is your first time renting a car in France, check out my tips for car rental in France.

I HAVE THE DETAILED ITINERARY FOR THIS TRIP! This easy-to-follow itinerary includes a specially designed map that can be printed or downloaded to your mobile device, accommodation recommendations for all budgets, and recommendations for the best cuisine and places to eat along the way. You can purchase it alone or as part of the France by Car e-book.

Day 0 | Arrival in Beaune

For this Burgundy road trip, I recommend arriving in Beaune the day before and booking accommodation for two nights, so you can spend a full day in Beaune.

Day 1 | Beaune

Beaune is a pretty medieval town, compact and very easy to explore on foot. Be sure to visit Les Hospices de Beaune (2 Rue de l’Hotel Dieu) for your day in Beaune; it is one of the most famous landmarks in France and a jewel of Burgundian architecture. Funded by their renowned wine estate, the Hospices have provided treatment and support for the elderly, sick, and destitute since the Middle Ages.

DID YOU KNOW? Below the streets of Beaune, a vast network of cellars sheltered the Christian world’s best wines for many centuries!

Then, head to La Maison des Climats (Porte Marie de Bourgogne, access is available through the Tourism Office), the must-place for anyone wanting to understand the climats vine-growing lands of Burgundy, which have been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2015.

THE CLIMATS OF BURGUNDY: Climat is the specific term used in Burgundy for a wine-growing plot. Climats are the worldwide birthplace of terroir-based viticulture. Over the centuries, local winegrowers have patiently identified each terroir and revealed them through the wine they produced. They collected and used the many rocks and stones present in the vineyard to build huts (known as cabottes) and walls to separate the vineyards into more than 1,000 climats. Nowhere else in the world has man shown such determination to precisely link a wine to its place of origin and production in Burgundy. Each climat was given a name, which is now cast in stone in the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) system, and they reflect both its place of origin, the winemaker’s skills and expertise (or ‘savoir-faire’ as we say in France). The climats of Burgundy were recognized as a treasure for Humanity and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015.

By now, it’s wine time, and luckily for you, Maison Champy (5 Rue du Grenier de Sel, Beaune) is not far away. Maison Champy (est. 1720) was the first winery to have been established in Burgundy. Today, it is internationally recognized for the quality of its Grands Crus from the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune vineyards, and in particular for its Corton Charlemagne wine. The Maison organizes tours and tastings with the opportunity to buy your favorite wines on-site.

If you are in the mood to explore other wines, here’s the list of some great wine houses worth visiting during your car-free day in Beaune:

• Domaine Chanson (10 Rue Paul Chanson /Rue du Collège, Beaune; Beaune wine region)
• Bouchard-Ainé & Fils (4 Boulevard du Maréchal Foch, Beaune; Beaune wine region)
• Domaine Loubet-Dewailly (11 Impasse Notre Dame, Beaune; Pommard wine region)

Day 2 | Beaune to Vougeot (Côte de Nuits)

Morning at Nuits-Saint-Georges

On the way to Vougeot, the landscapes of this wine route are beautiful, with plenty of photo opportunities, and nobody will blame you if you decide to stop a couple of times to get a closer look at the vines. Then, drive to Nuits-Saint-Georges, a small town with a long history of winemaking.

THE CÔTE DE NUITS is a hillside vineyard in the Burgundy Wine Region where almost all of the vines are exposed to the southeast, which allows the perfect maturity of its most important grape, pinot noir. With more than 90% of red wine production, this part of Burgundy is particularly well known for its 24 appellations Grands Crus. The Grands Crus are the highest vineyards, so they are more exposed to the sun. They are also the oldest vineyards in the Côte de Nuits, with the best soils. No wonder then that the most expensive wine in the world is a Burgundy wine, particularly a Côte de Nuits!

Nuits-Saint-Georges gives its name to the Côte de Nuits vineyard, and its patron Saint-Georges gives his name to its most famous wine (Village and Village Premier Cru). Most of the vines grown around this village are Pinot Noir, but there are a few plots with Chardonnay, too.

The Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, Bourgogne’s most famous wine fraternity, was founded in Nuits-Saint-Georges in 1934.

This small but lively town is good for a short visit and perhaps more wine tastings. Maison Moillard (2 Route de Dijon, Nuits-Saint-Georges) is an excellent place to go, with commented tastings in French and English, detailed explanations, and a good wine quality /price ratio.

Take an early lunch at the town’s main square, under the shadow of its intriguing belfry, before heading to Cîteaux.

Afternoon at the Abbey of Cîteaux

The next stop of this Route des Grands Crus road trip is Cîteaux. Visit the Abbey of Cîteaux and learn the history of this fascinating and important place for Burgundy’s wines.

Founded in 1098, the Abbey of Notre Dame de Cîteaux was the cradle of the Cistercian order in France and a model for numerous monasteries that were placed under its control. The first vineyards in Burgundy date back to the Celts and later the Romans. However, it was the Abbot of Molesmes, founder of Cîteaux, who identified the best kind of soils and selected certain grape varieties, improving the quality of the Burgundy wines.

Cîteaux’s wine estate was huge until the French Revolution and the nationalization of ecclesiastical property.

Day 3 | Vougeot to Dijon

Morning at Château Clos de Vougeot

After a good breakfast, drive to the Château Clos de Vougeot, one of the musts of the Burgundy Wine Region.

In the Middle Ages, wine-growing developed under the impetus of the Benedictine and Cistercian abbeys. In 1336, the monks of the Abbey of Cîteaux established the principles of winemaking. They built the first walls separating vineyards, known as clos, contributing like this to the promotion of the region’s wines. The first of those clos, Clos de Vougeot, produces today one of the Grands Crus of the Côte de Nuits.

Wander around the château’s different rooms and halls; the visit reveals the monks’ winemaking genius in the Middle Ages. It was the monks of Cîteaux who, in the 12th century, built the magnificent cellar and winery in the clos. Today, the cellar houses two monumental wine presses.

Afternoon at Gevrey-Chambertin

Gevrey-Chambertin is another small wine-growing village on this Burgundy wine trail that enjoys a worldwide reputation: Gevrey-Chambertin is home to 9 Grands Crus, the most famous of which is Chambertin.

Wine beginners may be interested in visiting La Halle Chambertin (1 Rue Gaston Roupnel,  Gevrey-Chambertin) in the heart of the village. In May 2020, the former covered market opened a new space for tasting some of the wines of Gevrey-Chambertin AOC (Village and Village Premier Cru wines). For 20 euros, take a wine-tasting session of 4 Gevrey wines (Villages and Régionales), where you’ll also learn the basics of wine tasting.

More experienced wine lovers can go to Domaine Quivy (7 Rue Gaston Roupnel, Gevery-Chambertin) for wine tasting and good shopping. This charming 18th-century private townhouse is listed as a Historical Monument and has its own cellars, vat house, and testing cellar.

Day 4 | Dijon

Dijon is one of the most beautiful cities in France and the capital of the historical region of Burgundy. It was home to the Dukes of Burgundy, and as such, it has a fascinating cultural and architectural heritage.

After the monks, the powerful Dukes of Burgundy dominated art and culture across Europe. With their help, the Burgundy region and its wines gained considerable economic and cultural standing. Burgundy wines were shipped all over Europe, and winegrowers began ranking their wines according to their provenance and quality in a precise hierarchy.

DID YOU KNOW? In 1935, Duke Philippe le Hardi uprooted all the Gamay grapevines, which he described as “very harmful to human beings.” He ordered Pinot Noir to be the only authorized grape for producing Burgundy wine.

Follow the owl! In Dijon, brass plaques engraved with owls (the city’s symbol and unofficial talisman) lead visitors to the main sights of Dijon. Don’t miss the Hôtel des Ducs de Bourgogne, an elegant palace built in the 14th-15th century with a beautiful art collection about the history and expertise of the vine and wine, from Antiquity to the present day.

So, what are you waiting for exploring this Burgundy wine route? Book this road trip along the Route des Grands Crus today!

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