Museum visits · Vougeot · France
The Château du Clos de Vougeot, the cellar of the monks of Cîteaux in the middle of the grand cru
the fifteenth century presses, the great cellier and the hall of the Chevaliers du Tastevin, in the middle of fifty hectares of vineyard enclosed by a wall on the Côte de Nuits
The Clos de Vougeot is the vineyard that the monks of the abbey of Cîteaux put together between 1109 and 1115 and enclosed with a wall: fifty hectares of grand cru, all Pinot Noir, the largest grand cru of the Côte de Nuits, today divided among more than eighty owners. In the middle stands the château, that is, their winery: the cuverie with the four oak presses worked by capstan, the great cellier where two thousand barrels were kept, and the Renaissance wing that an abbot added in 1551. Since 1944 it has been entrusted to the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, which holds its chapters here with gala dinners, and since 2015 it has been the seat of the Climats of Burgundy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You visit on your own, asking questions to an assistant on your phone, or with a guide, and for young people there is the château built in toy bricks.
Getting there
- From the D974, the Route des Grands Crus, at Vougeot you go up the rue de la Montagne westwards, among the vineyards, for about seven hundred metres
- Next to the château there is a free car park for visitors, and coaches turn on the forecourt in front of the château, at the end of the allée Léonce Bocquet: the château does not publish any directions for motorhomes
- For the night the nearest stopover is the one at Nuits-Saint-Georges, five kilometres away
- Without the motorhome you arrive by train at Vougeot-Gilly station, and with your train ticket entry costs 9.50 euros
Practical information
The château is open all year, but it is also the Confrérie's banqueting hall: on reception days the visit is shorter, and on Saturday it closes earlier.
Duration an hour for the guided visit; on your own an hour or a little more, an hour and a half or two with the shop and the exhibition. Arrive at least an hour before closing
Price 12 euros, from 8 to 16 years 5; with a guide 15 and 8
When to go all year
Suitable for everyone, young people too, who find the château built in toy bricks; dogs only if small and carried in a bag
Booking not for the visit on your own; the guided visit yes, by email to the château
Contacts
Where it is
Vougeot · Borgogna
Notes
- Opening hours: from 1 April to 31 October every day from 9:30 to 18:00, from 1 November to 31 March from 10:00 to 17:00; the ticket office closes half an hour earlier. At weekends in winter it sometimes stays open until 18:00, and the page says so in two different ways: phone ahead. On Saturday, when there is a reception, it closes at 17:00
- Closed on 24, 25 and 31 December and 1 January
- Guided visits in French at 10:30 and 14:30 on weekdays and at 16:30 at weekends, in English at 11:30 and 15:30; there are none in Italian. On the visit on your own you scan the codes on the blue signs and ask your questions to an assistant on your phone
- Prices: the visit on your own 12 euros, from 8 to 16 years and for students 5; the guided visit 15 euros and 8. Under 8 years the price is not published. Reduced tickets are bought on site
- The name of the vineyard appears in 1164, in a bull of Pope Alexander III that mentions "the cellier of Vougeot". The abbey of Cîteaux, founded in 1098, is twelve kilometres away
- In the cuverie are the four capstan presses, and the timber roof structure above them is a sight in itself; in the great cellier, half underground, eight stone pillars hold up the wooden roof, and there was room for two thousand 228 litre barrels. The sources do not agree on which century it dates from: it is said to be medieval
- In 1551 Dom Jean Loisier, the forty-eighth abbot of Cîteaux, added the Renaissance building, and the clos became a château
- The Revolution confiscated the clos in 1790. In 1889 the négociant Léonce Bocquet bought the château and saved it; since 1944 it has belonged to the society of the Friends of the château, which has entrusted it to the Confrérie
- The Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin was born in Nuits-Saint-Georges in 1934 and has twelve thousand knights around the world. The chapter of the Trois Glorieuses falls on the Saturday before the Beaune auction, in 2026 on 14 November: the château does not say whether the visit changes that day, so phone ahead
- In October the château hosts the world championship of œufs en meurette, and in March the auction of the wines of the Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges. Until December 2026 there is an exhibition on Brillat-Savarin and the birth of gastronomy
- At the end of the visit there is the wine shop and the Comptoir du Bénaton, open every day from 10:00 to 16:00
Photo: Wikipedro, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Jean de l'Auxois, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Margot1934, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Margot1934, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Margot1934, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Margot1934, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
