The 539 lots of wine that went under the hammer – 428 barrels of 34 reds and 111 barrels (including two half barrels) of 18 whites – averaged €33,930 in price, an increase of 4.6% over last year’s average price and the fifth consecutive year in which the average price per barrel has exceeded €30,000.
Additional lots – sold to over 370 registered bidders, online and in the auction room – included 11 barrels of eaux-de-vie and the Pièce des Présidents, bringing the total sale to 552 lots.
A recent trend of higher prices for white wines continued this year, as the average barrel cost for whites reached a lofty €58,580.
‘The white wines held some wonderful surprises,’ said Guillaume Koch, director and chairman of the Board of the Hospices Civils de Beaune. Indeed, leading the results were two barrels of Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru, Cuvée Dames de Flandres, which sold for €400,000 each, establishing – for the second consecutive year – a record price for a barrel of this white Grand Cru. Another record was set for the Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru Cuvée François de Salins for €155,000.
Included in this year’s hammer total was the Pièce des Présidents, which also achieved a record €400,000 this year for a Pommard 1er Cru Les Rugiens, equalling the highest amount ever paid for a Premier Cru in this category. In 2010, a Beaune Premier Cru Nicolas Rolin reached the same figure, though that was for a 500-litre barrel rather than this year’s standard 228-litre pièce.
The winning bidder this year was Li Zhongliang, a Beijing-based entrepreneur working in artificial intelligence for medical applications, quite a fitting profession given the two organisations benefitting this year:
Enfance et Handicap en Côte-d’Or (EHCO), which develops AI tools, companion robots and exoskeletons to support autonomy and inclusion for children with disabilities; and The Robert-Debré Child Brain Institute, a leading centre for neurodevelopmental research using imaging and AI.
Their causes were championed in the auction hall by Cédric Klapisch, Vincent Lacoste, Alice Taglioni and Martin Solveig – luminaries from France’s film and music industries – who animated a lively bidding battle that pushed the charity lot well above last year’s €360,000.
The Pièce des Présidents: Pommard 1er Cru Les Rugiens. Credit: Courtesy of Sotheby’s
A vintage marked by extremes — and an accelerated harvest
The 2025 growing season was shaped by sharp swings between excess moisture, heat spikes and compressed ripening windows, resulting in low yields but surprisingly healthy fruit. Estate winemaker Ludivine Griveau-Gemma described the year as demanding but ‘handled with agility’, crediting organic farming and meticulous sorting with maintaining fruit quality despite the season’s volatility.
As often the case this early, many 2025s before the auction had not yet undergone malolactic fermentation. This left malic acid more apparent than it will be in the finished wines – particularly in the reds – giving samples pronounced acidity that made assessment tricky.
Some tasters wondered whether the whites, showing tension and purity at this early stage, might soften too much after malolactic fermentation but Griveau-Gemma countered that malic levels in the whites were modest, and the balance would ‘remain fully intact’ after fermentation.
Public access: Tastings, art and festivities
This year marked a turning point in public participation, with the Hospices launching a new public online booking for a tasting of 10 domaine wines in the beautiful old cellars of the Hospices, ranging from 2015 to 2022.
The tasting replaces the long informal queues of earlier years. At €30, tickets sold out quickly. Of the three time slots offered – Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, and Sunday morning – the last one is best if running late, because it is the least in demand, said Camille Duquennoy, a Hospices communications representative. Around 1,000 people attended over the weekend.
Food and music filled the streets despite intermittent rain. A brass band swept past as I stood outside Brasserie Carnot, the music mingling with the smell of buttered snails and freshly shucked oysters.
Auction Sunday always reveals its split personality: polished buyers hurrying into the Hospices on one side, locals and visitors relaxing over food and wine on the other. ‘Burgundy is home, and I just took a break on Sunday,’ said Renée Wilmeth, commandeur of the Indianapolis chapter of the Chevaliers du Tastevin, when I ran into her at the brasserie.
More athletic wine lovers signed up for the Vente des Vins de Beaune half-marathon, held the day before the sale, with wine breaks every four to five kilometres along a nearly 11-kilometre route through Volnay, Pommard and Meursault. Danika Leminski of Ottawa laughed that ‘some people stopped after a few kilometres and drank wine’, but she finished the full route — rewarded with a free bottle.
Beaune’s café culture also has taken a welcome step forward. At Crème Café, opened last year, visitors finally can enjoy quality, Barista-prepared coffee. Nima Ansari and Lorena Ascencios, wine buyers for Astor Wines in New York, praised it as a highlight in a town long known for indifferent café offerings.
