Domaine Hospices de Beaune

The Hospices de Beaune were founded in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin, chancellor of Burgundy, and his wife Guigone de Salins as a charity hospital for the poor. The original building — the Hôtel-Dieu — is among the finest examples of fifteenth-century Burgundian architecture, recognisable by its polychrome glazed-tile roof in red, brown, yellow and green. Rogier van der Weyden's altarpiece *The Last Judgement* still hangs in its interior.

The institution functioned as a working hospital until 1971, when patient services transferred to a modern facility. The Hôtel-Dieu now operates as a museum. Over the centuries, Burgundian nobles and bourgeois families donated vineyard parcels to the Hospices — gifts that accumulated into what is today the Domaine des Hospices de Beaune, roughly 61 ha with most holdings at premier or grand cru level.

The defining feature of the Hospices de Beaune is its annual charity auction.

- Timing: held every year on the third Sunday of November, as the centrepiece of the three-day wine festival *Les Trois Glorieuses*. - Origin: the auction has run continuously since 1859. - Management: Christie's conducted the sale from 2005 to 2020; Sotheby's has run it since 2021. - Proceeds: funds go toward the hospital's ongoing operations at the modern facility.

Wines are offered as cuvées named after benefactors — the winning négociant or domaine then ages and bottles the wine, so the same cuvée can differ markedly between buyers in any given year. Named cuvées include:

- Cuvée Nicolas Rolin (Beaune 1er Cru, named for the founder) - Cuvée Dames Hospitalières (Beaune 1er Cru) - Cuvée Charlotte Dumay (Corton Les Renardes, Grand Cru) - Cuvée Docteur Peste (blend across several Corton climats, Grand Cru) - Cuvée Madame de Bahèzre de Lanlay (Meursault Les Charmes, 1er Cru) - Cuvée Philippe le Bon (Meursault Les Genevrières, 1er Cru)