You can find a link to Part 1 of this series immediately below this paragraph. That article explored why the Hautes Côtes are poised to take off as the next “in” Burgundy appellation. In short, climate change has been welcomed in that location. Agnès Paquet explained why when she eloquently quipped, “now we can make wine with ripe grapes.” Land prices are far lower in this heretofore backwater portion of Burgundy, s attracting lots of producers, young and old, to invest here. In this Part 2, I will highlight some of the newer producers in the Hautes Côtes. In part 3, I will focus on the “Old-Timers.”
[click here for “The Hautes Côtes: The Next Hot Spot for Affordable Burgundy, Part 1”]
Boris Champy is a cheerleader for the Hautes Côtes. Although the name, Domaine Boris Champy first appeared on labels only in 2019, Champy’s experience with wine and Burgundy go back decades. Champy acquired the property, based in Nantoux in the Hautes Côtes de Beaune, from Didier Montchovet, who created it in 1984. Didier was an early advocate of biodynamics – his estate was the first in Burgundy to be Demeter-certified as such. Champy has continued that philosophy believing that biodynamic practices help express the differences of terroir within his estate. His three 2022 and 2023 Hautes Côtes de Beaune wines from different vineyards, which he labels by site and elevation, are all stunning and reflect the individuality of the sites.
Champy’s floral 2023 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune, Bignon 421 combines a balanced combination of red fruit with minerals atop a suave base. The rusticity of the Hautes Côtes of the past is gone! Drink this mid-weight red now with roast chicken (93 pts.; $47). The more muscular and structured 2023 Clos 377 displays more “oomph” and shows the difference between this pure limestone site compared to more clay-laden Bignon (94 pts.; $54).
With two whites, both made exclusively from Chardonnay and from the same site, Montagne 382, Champy shows that winemaker techniques play a significant, and perhaps complementary, role to terroir. Champy made the racy and suave 2023 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune, Montagne 382 by pressing the grapes in the usual manner, producing a finesse-filled and beautifully textured wine (94 pts.; $47). Using a vertical press like ones used in Champagne, Champy’s 2023 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune, Montagne 382 labeled “Presse Verticale” conveys more richness, power, and phenolics, with a seemingly lower acidity. I suspect its enhanced structure will allow it to age and develop beautifully (93 pts.; $39).
Agnès Paquet, a relative newcomer, started her estate in the tiny village of Meloisey in Hautes Côtes de Beaune just 25 years ago. She plunged into organic viticulture, achieving organic certification with the 2021 vintage. A delight to drink now, her enticing 2023 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune Blanc conveys none of the coarseness found in wines from this appellation in the past (91 pts.; $45). A sample of her 2024 was even racier and more exhilarating (94 pts.; n/a). Paquet’s alluring 2022 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune Rouge bursts with character, reminiscent of a Santenay with charming rusticity. It’s another “roast chicken” kind of wine that’s lovely to drink now (93 pts.; $44). Like many young producers in the Hautes Côtes, Paquet experiments with winemaking techniques. She made the lush 2023 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune “En Matrin” using whole bunches instead of destemming the grapes, a technique that she thinks added roundness and freshness. Ripe, but not overdone and fresh, she’ll get no argument from me (94 pts.; n/a).
Seiichi Saito, a Japanese ex-pat, attended the wine school in Beaune in 2006, moved to Burgundy, and worked at a succession of top domaines before establishing his own micro-négociant business, Petit Roy, in Chorey-lès-Beaune in the Côte d’Or, in 2017. He is one of those who took advantage of lower priced land in the Hautes Côtes, buying three vineyards in three different villages in the Hautes Côtes de Beaune. Like Champy, he bottles the wines separately because he wants to focus on their individual terroir. To emphasize the site, the vineyard name appears on the front label of his wines while the appellation, Hautes Côtes de Beaune, is relegated to the back.
In November 2025, Seiichi and I tasted all three reds from the 2022 vintage. They clearly showed the importance of site. Saito describes Ronsin as a cool site, in Nantoux, just above Pommard. The youthful and balanced 2022 Ronsin displayed a charming rusticity with apparent tannins befitting its youthful stage (90 pts.; $54). For comparison, he opened a 2019 from the same vineyard that was amazingly suave and fresh, with a tea-like herbal quality, showing how beautifully the wine from this site develops (95 pts.; n/a). You’d be excused if you identified the 2019 as a village wine from the Côte de Nuits. The pretty 2022 Perrières, from Échevronne, was already silkier and more suave, with lots of minerality. Not opulent, it is seductive thanks to elegance rather than power (93 pts.; $55). The third of the Hautes Côtes de Beaune trio, Vignes Vilon, from the village of Nolay, delivered upfront power wrapped with elegant tannins (93 pts.; $54). As only a winemaker can do, Seiichi improvised a mixture of the three ‘22s. As distinctive as the wines from the three sites were, his off-the-cuff blend supports Aristotle’s observation that the whole is (sometimes) greater than the sum of its parts.
Another new-ish grower, at least to the Hautes Côtes, is Domaine Sylvain Langoureau, one of the leading lights in St Aubin. Sylvain and his wife Nathalie have run this five-generation old Domaine, which they farm organically, since 1989. They acquired the Clos Marc in the Hautes Côtes in 2007 and, ever since, have been adding vineyards there. They take as much care with their wines from the Hautes Côtes as they do with their superb wines from St. Aubin, which (by the way) are uniformly superb and not to be missed.
Langoureau hit a trifecta with their Chardonnay, from vines located vines just behind Saint Aubin on the road to Rochepot, in their 2022, 2023, and 2024 Hautes Côtes de Beaune. The ’22 highlights a discrete and appealing minerality over fruitiness (92 pts.; $35), while the slightly fruitier 2023 displays a hint of pepper in the finish. The stunning ’24 combines weight with verve, all amplified by saline-tinged acidity (94 pts.; $30). Their polished and refined 2024 Hautes Côtes de Beaune “Clos Marc” is further evidence that the coarse texture of the Hautes Côtes reds should be a thing of the past (95 pts.; $30).
Maison Noblet-Gauthier, whose first vintage was only 2023, found space for their small winery on Boulevard Bretonnière, virtually in the center of Beaune. Justine Pillot makes wines that are sourced from grapes in the Côte d’Or and Côte Chalonnaise. They’ve also found a good source in the Hautes Côtes for reds. Their charming red-fruited 2023 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune is the kind of wine you open during the week to accompany a quickly sautéed steak and roasted potatoes. (91 pts.; n/a). François Gauthier reinforced what others have told me when he explained that the Hautes Côtes was the place for those just starting out because it was affordable.
Consumers should take notice of the wines from the Hautes Côtes for precisely the same reason.
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E-mail me your thoughts about Burgundy in general or the Hautes Côtes in particular at Michael.Apstein1@gmail.com and follow me on Instagram @MichaelApstein
February 11, 2026