Why Now Is the Perfect Time to Visit Burgundy
The celebrated French wine region welcomes a new era of hotels, restaurants, and spas for aesthetes and epicures alike
Burgundy has been famous as a place that purveys pleasure ever since the Romans planted the first vineyards on the gentle slopes of this verdant region of eastern France in the first century A.D. Renowned for its exquisite wines, the area now boasts a new generation of magnificent hotels. To be sure, Burgundy has long had some supremely cosseting auberges, places such as Hostellerie de Levernois, Le Relais Bernard Loiseau, and Maison Lameloise, all of them part of the well-mannered and assiduously French Relais & Châteaux hotel group. However, these recently opened Burgundian stays eschew whispery service and prim formality to offer a more intimate, easygoing, and profoundly authentic experience.
As I was driving on a country road south from Dijon, the ancient capital of Burgundy and a charming but still under-the-radar city with some fascinating museums and excellent restaurants, the vineyard-planted slopes of the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits induced a deep feeling of serenity. Admiring the landscape, I recalled something the late, great American food writer M.F.K. Fisher told me: “It will always be Burgundy I love in my bones, because it’s the most French part of France. It’s where you find the soul of Gaul.”
Lying in the picturesque village of Pernand-Vergelesses, La Paulée de Pernand—a simple restaurant with friendly service, a chalkboard menu of succulent Burgundian dishes, and a stellar wine list—is exactly the kind of convivial and unpretentious place the locals like to keep under their hats. Seated outside and surrounded by winemakers talking business, I ate jambon persillé (shredded ham in parslied aspic) and blanquette de veau (veal stew with mushrooms, onions, and carrots) while sampling a local varietal.
Just south of Beaune, the 37-room Château la Commaraine in Pommard is Burgundy’s first five-star winery hotel. Here, at this 12th-century building that was once the fief of the Duke of Burgundy, a circular drive wraps around a fountain ornamented by a statue by late Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon—a visual wink denoting that although the newcomer is quite grand, it is far from formal and stuffy.
Architect and Affine Design studio principal Richard Martinet oversaw the five-year renovation of the château, signing the soothing ivory, oyster, and taupe rooms with blond wood built-ins, textile wall coverings, and handmade rugs from local weavers, including the Manufacture de Tapis Bourgogne. Joining the gastronomic restaurant Le VIII is Les Clos, a modern bistro with an internationally inflected brasserie menu, including dishes such as France’s famous Bresse poultry with eggplant and piquillo peppers and a cheese tray from Beaune’s premier purveyor, Alain Hess.
The following day, I headed to Puligny-Montrachet, another legendary wine village, to meet friends who were staying at the 28-room COMO Le Montrachet, the latest outpost of the Singapore-based hotel chain. It occupies a dignified 19th-century stone house overlooking the main square, and its room decor is inspired by Toile de Jouy. Our lunch was pleasant—John Dory with peas, lardo di Colonnata, and shellfish—but not especially Burgundian, and the same could be said of the hotel. On the other hand, a strong and resonant sense of history and place are exactly what the new, 49-room Les Sources de Vougeot offers in the superbly renovated 14th-century Château de Gilly, the former residence of the Abbots of Cîteaux. Set inside a beautifully landscaped park, the austere stone buildings, with their steep terra-cotta tile roofs and monastic architecture, are the latest property of Jérôme and Alice Tourbier’s Les Sources group, which features spa- and wellness-centered hotels across France.
Although history and heritage are at the core of Les Sources de Vougeot’s identity, A.S.L Architects meticulously integrated modern elements into the medieval framework, customizing the design of every room. They’re spacious and extraordinarily comfortable, with lovely views over either the surrounding park and vineyards or the interior courtyard, where porters greet guests with wicker luggage wagons. The dramatic spa is located in the tone-pillared cellar, where the monks once stored their kegs of wine, and treatments use products by Caudalie, the skin-care brand founded by Alice’s sister, Mathilde Thomas, and her husband, Bertrand, and incorporate antioxidant-rich grape polyphenols.
The hotel’s two restaurants—L’Auberge des Cîteaux, a bistro, and Le Clos de la Tour, its gastronomic table—are run by the very talented young chef Julien Martin, who returned to his native Burgundy after winning a Michelin star in Provence. Martin’s ardent and elegant modern renderings of traditional Burgundian dishes, including John Dory with a creamy white wine and butter sauce pochouse, make this the best new restaurant to open in the region—and a place I’d wholeheartedly recommend to the legendarily discerning M.F.K. Fisher.
The Burgundy hotel boom continues apace with the opening of the 35-room Château de Cîteaux, a 19th-century manor built over France’s oldest Cistercian cellars, from the 12th century, in Meursault. It’s the latest address of the French Fontenille hotel group, and rooms come in a serene scheme of ecru, cream, sand, and celadon, with most having fine views over the neighboring vineyards, which produce one of the world’s best white wines, Meursault.
The new allure doesn’t look to be fading anytime soon either, because, as Florent Chauveau, the general manager of the Château la Commaraine, says, “discovering the vintages of Burgundy is such a joyous and civilizing experience that once is never enough.”
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2026 Late Fall Issue under the headline “French Vintage” Subscribe to the magazine.