Hospices de Beaune Wine Auction 2026: Date and Weekend Guide

1. Sunday 15 November: the sale under the Halles

The Hospices sale, under the Halles de Beaune

Professionals only Sunday 15 November 2026 November: around 8 °C 166th edition

The wines sold at the auction come from the hospital’s own estate, which owns plots in appellations including Beaune, Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, Corton and Chassagne. They are sold in 228-litre casks called pièces. Buyers receive their wine several months after the sale, once it has been aged and bottled, so this is an en primeur sale.

The 166th sale takes place on Sunday 15 November 2026, under the Halles, with Sotheby’s. The auction house was picked after a tender by the Hospices in 2021, for five years. It took over from Christie’s, which ran the sale from 2005 to 2020. According to La Gazette France, which announced the edition on 8 September 2026, the 2026 charity cask supports two rare-disease charities: DEBRA France and ARSLA.

The public does not attend the auction. The room has very few seats, and registration goes through Sotheby’s, which requires accreditation several weeks in advance, according to a specialist guide. Online bidding is also reserved for registered buyers.

If you can’t get into the room, you can still taste grand crus from the Côte de Beaune on the same day. The private tasting described below lasts between 1 hour 30 and 2 hours: a sommelier pours seven wines, three whites and four reds, from Premier and Grand Cru vineyards made by several winemakers. The tasting is held in French or English.

• Sunday 15 November 2026, date confirmed by La Gazette France and France.fr
• Sale reserved for professionals and accredited buyers
• A full weekend around the sale, from Saturday to Monday

Pixidia tip: the 2026 start time had not been published when we wrote this. In 2024, the sale started at 14:30. Check the official programme before building your Sunday around that slot, and leave some room for the afternoon tastings.

Private Tasting in Beaune: The Best of Burgundy Wines From €59 per adult (based on 2 adults, Sunday 15 November) · ★ 4.9 (80 reviews)

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2. The Trois Glorieuses: the programme, day by day

The weekend is known as the Trois Glorieuses, the Three Glorious Days. On Saturday 14 November, the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin holds its Chapter at the Château du Clos de Vougeot, by invitation only. Sunday is the sale. On Monday 16 November, the Paulée de Meursault brings together winemakers and guests. Between these highlights, public events multiply in Beaune and the villages of the Côte.

The 2026 programme is still to be confirmed. The Chapter’s start time, published as 19:30 for 2025, was not known for 2026, and no source we checked gave the 2026 price of the Fête des Grands Vins. The single ticket gives access to free tasting of the Burgundy appellations, according to the listings we checked. Check the official site, fetedesgrandsvins.fr, before you buy.

On Saturday 14 November, the house of Louis Jadot also runs a special evening with a visit and tasting around the sale. Listed prices differ from one agenda to another, so ask the house for the price directly before you book.

3. What you can do without being a professional

Cellars, tastings and dinners during the sale

Public, by reservation 13 to 15 November 2026 Côte de Beaune

Over the weekend, the cellars in the Côte villages open their doors. The Caveau Moillard, in Meursault, offers a gourmet tasting on 13, 14 and 15 November 2026, according to Beaune Tourisme. Louis Jadot hosts visits and tastings around the sale. For dinner in town, the Monaka restaurant, at the voco Beaune hotel near the Cité des Vins, offered a dinner during the sale in 2025, priced between €20 and €80 depending on the menu, with a child price of €18, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 19:00.

These prices are from 2025. The 2026 price had not been published when we wrote this, so ask when you book.

• Gourmet tasting at the Caveau Moillard, in Meursault
• Dinner at Monaka during the sale, by reservation
• Cité des Climats et Vins de Bourgogne, in Beaune, to understand the climats before you taste

Pixidia tip: book dinners and cellar visits before you go. According to guides, numbers rise during sale week, and the most popular slots fill first.

4. Figures, charity cask and changes since 2021

Each edition comes with a total published by the press, but the bases vary: before or including buyer’s premium, in euros or dollars. The table below uses one basis per edition, or a sourced range where sources disagree.

According to Sotheby’s and the press, the 2025 total is the third highest in the sale’s history. The 2025 charity cask did not beat the 2022 record, but it still topped the 2024 one, which reached €360,000, plus €100,000 contributed by the house Michel Picard.

Asian buyers weighed heavily in 2025, according to the press, but no official figure gives their share by country. For the same edition, Sotheby’s announced 32 countries represented and 700 potential buyers in the room, a participation record according to the press release reported by the media.

5. The Hôtel-Dieu: the weekend visit

The Hôtel-Dieu in Beaune, open on sale Sunday

€12.50 full price (to be reconfirmed) Sunday 15 November, 9am to 7:30pm Open all year Paved courtyard

The Hôtel-Dieu is a former hospital founded in 1443, according to guides and the sources we checked. The building is known for its glazed tile roof and oak roof frames. Today the historic building is a museum. The Hospices’ wine estate, behind the sale, is linked to the institution. Some visitors find the visit short: it takes in three levels, with a cellar, a film screening and a tasting.

Prices: €12.50 for ages 18 and over; €9.50 concession for students, large families and job seekers; €6.25 for ages 6 to 17, people with disabilities and one companion; free for under-6s. The booking page still carries the title « 2025 RATES »: these amounts still need to be reconfirmed for 2026.

Opening hours: from 1 to 15 November, the Hôtel-Dieu is open continuously from 9am to 7:30pm, including the Sunday of the sale. From 16 November, it opens 9am to 12:30pm, then 2pm to 6:30pm. It has no annual closure. Tickets are neither exchangeable nor refundable, except in cases of force majeure.

TER discount: with a TER (regional train) ticket to Beaune bought less than 48 hours earlier, or a season pass, the Hôtel-Dieu ticket is available at the reduced rate when you buy a full-price one, according to the official FAQ.

• Open Sunday 15 November, 9am to 7:30pm
• Reduced rate with a TER ticket bought less than 48 hours earlier
• Accessible site, with a paved courtyard you can easily walk across

Pixidia tip: for a visit suited to reduced mobility, write to [email protected] rather than booking online. According to the FAQ, the « Behind the Scenes » visit is not suitable. During sale week, book your time slot in advance.

6. Getting to Beaune, parking and where to stay

There is no direct TGV to Beaune. The route runs through Dijon-Ville: the TGV from Paris takes about 1 hour 35 minutes according to reference timetables, then the TER links Dijon to Beaune in 18 to 30 minutes depending on the train. A Mobigo bus also links Dijon, Nuits-Saint-Georges and Beaune. November 2026 timetables were not available when we wrote this, so check SNCF Connect a few days before you travel.

By car, one blog estimate gives around three hours from Paris, with no official figure. Parking gets tricky during sale weekend. The paid Chanceliers car park has two accessible spaces (PMR), 30 metres from the information office. The Madeleine car park has a blue zone limited to three hours, with a parking disc you pick up from a supermarket or a tobacconist. Avoid parking on the street around the Place de la Halle and the Rue de l’Hôtel-Dieu, which is classed as a red zone.

For accommodation, no 2026 availability data has been published. Guides say hotels in Beaune and nearby villages, such as Pommard, Meursault or Aloxe-Corton, fill up from late summer for this weekend. Book early, and if the town is full, compare the options below.

To compare routes and plan your stops day by day, the Pixidia planner helps you put the trip together.

7. Budget: what the weekend costs

Not every 2026 price has been published. The table only lists sourced amounts, with their year. Other costs, such as meals and accommodation, depend on your choices and dates.

For a weekend for two, the most variable cost is restaurants and accommodation together. No verified price covers Beaune restaurants in November 2026. Build your budget from the prices displayed on the spot, and book the sale dinners as soon as the menus go online.

8. The 2026 vintage: early and small

The 2026 vintage was dry, hot and early. According to La Gazette France, the Hôtel-Dieu harvest ran from 15 to 24 August 2026, over nine days of picking, for a crop described as fairly small. Domaine Leflaive began picking Montrachet on 13 August, the earliest harvest in nearly 500 years, according to Vinetur. Hail on 17 June hit the Côte de Beaune, particularly between Beaune and Pommard.

No official verdict had been published when we wrote this, and no tasting of the 2026 sale was available. For quality, you’ll need to wait for the official tastings and the first reviews in the specialist press. For the wider picture on this year’s harvests, see our guide to the 2026 harvests in Burgundy, Champagne and Bordeaux.

The Pommard appellation celebrates its 90th anniversary in 2026. The Hospices estate owns 7.20 hectares there, according to La Gazette France.

9. Depending on your profile

• First time, as a couple: plan Sunday with the Hôtel-Dieu in the morning, the private tasting early in the afternoon, then dinner in a cellar or at Monaka. Saturday is the best day for the Fête des Grands Vins.
• With family: the Hôtel-Dieu charges €6.25 for ages 6 to 17, and entry is free for under-6s. Town-centre events, including the Marché Gourmand on Place Carnot, still need confirming for 2026.
• Tight budget: focus on the public festivities and the Hôtel-Dieu, then stay in Dijon and take the TER to Beaune.
• Reduced mobility: the Chanceliers car park has accessible spaces (PMR), and people with reduced mobility get the reduced rates at the Hôtel-Dieu, along with a companion. For an adapted visit, write to the address given above.
• Accredited professional: you register with Sotheby’s several weeks in advance. The Chapter and the Paulée remain invitation-only, so don’t count on getting in without an invitation.

10. What the sale says about the market, and its limits

A charity sale is not enough to measure the retail market. Yet the press reads it as a barometer of the Burgundy en primeur market. Three points keep coming up: Asian demand, the decline of reds and the early vintage. In June 2026, Vinetur noted that sales of Burgundy reds remained weak and that cellar releases were falling.

The sale has also seen tension. In 2004, the president of Louis Latour said that the Hospices selling wine themselves would be « a declaration of war », before clarifying that he was targeting plans to bottle it. In 2005, a row broke out over prices seen as low, with accusations of collusion between merchants. Louis-Fabrice Latour denied any collusion, while acknowledging meetings between merchants beforehand, according to Decanter. That same year, Christie’s opened the auction to private buyers, a first since 1859.

Finally, public access remains a point of debate: the sale is between professionals, and the Festivinales offer events open to everyone.