We are headed to the burgundy region this fall for a canal barge trip. After the barge portion of the trip, we are going to spend 3-4 days in Beaune and obviously want to do some visits and tastings. I’m a burgundy novice and speak ZERO French, so I’m looking for a guide that can drive for us as well as get us into 2 or so wineries a day. Any suggestions?
When we were in Beaune we joined Bill Nanson from the Burgundy Report on a couple of days of tasting tours - [https://www.burgundy-report.com/burgundy-wine-guided-day-tours-special-tours/.]
We were there during the week of the Hospice du Beaune. Bill went out of his way to make sure our experience was special, even getting us access to a couple of industry-only events. My wife Allison told people we were his interns. 
We got to taste the entire line-up of wines at each winery, versus the select few sips at a usual tasting. We were literally tagging along with Bill as he wrote his tasting notes for the Burgundy Report. We learned a ton, in particular the importance of using the spit bucket.
Plus Bill is a great guy - our highest recommendation, and would use him again in a heartbeat when we go back again.
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We did a full day private tour in Burgundy last September through Hautes Côtes, just the two of us and our driver/guide, Loic Lamy. It was a wonderful experience and we learned a lot! They also recommended restaurants for us and made a couple of reservations, which was really helpful.
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@DavidFrankil @DonnaM Thank you so much for posting the tour options. Would you mind sharing either the names or the calibre of Domains you visited. I love the idea of having someone make appointments and handle the driving. I am fairly well connected in Burgundy but it is one of the hardest places to organize due to the difficulty in getting appointments as some of the harder Domains.
With Bill Nanson the specific schedule will depend on his rotation of tasting visits. Our group did not have much experience with Burgundy, so we were happy with putting ourselves in his hands to schedule the tours. That said, Bill took great care of us - here was our schedule -
• Domaine Bart, Marsannay
• Domaine Jérôme Galeyrand, Gevrey-Chambertin
• Domaine Tardy, Vosne-Romanée
• Domaine Trapet (tasting and lunch)
• Domaine Mark Haisma, Gilly-Lès-Citeaux
• Domaine Serafin, Geverey-Chambertin
• Maison Laurent Ponsot, Gilly-Lès-Citeaux
• 2023 Tastevinage Majors (industry event)
• Majors Tasting Roi Chambertin, Vintage 2022 (industry event at Clos Vougeot)
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Thank you! That is super helpful.
We had a more modest agenda! Since we had just one day we only wanted 2 tastings, and requested those be with small producers because that’s our preference overall. Hautes Cotes will tailor the tour to your specifications, and they asked us if there was any place we particularly wanted to visit. We said nope, we know nothing of the region so it’s your choice. Since our visit was in early September everyone was gearing up for harvest and many of the tiny producers weren’t available, so we ended up tasting with a couple of medium-sized outfits, Domaine Magnien, Morey-Saint-Denis, and Domaine Armand Heitz, Pommard. Both were interesting but Magnien had the slightly better wine in our opinion. Had a lovely lunch at La Cabotte in Nuits Saint George.
Much of the day was spent driving through Cote de Nuits and Cote de Beaune, stopping at various places along the way for a walk-and-talk. We learned about the history and geology of the region and the various soil types, as well as the plot and classification systems. That may not be what you need or want, but again Hautes Cotes can put together a tour geared to your particular specs.
Loic was an entertaining and highly knowledgeable guide, and gave us a really fun day as well as teaching us the basics of Burgundy. Interestingly, we learned that he’s a fan of Bedrock! He was introduced to them on a trip to California to visit a friend in the industry.
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