| South of Dijon, the attractive countryside of the Côte d'Or is characterized by the steep scarp of the côte, wooded along the top and cut by steep little valleys called Combes, where local rock climbers hone their skills (footpaths GR7 and GR76 run the whole length of the wine country as far south as Lyon). Spring is a good time to visit this region, when you avoid the crowds and the landscape is a dramatic symphony of browns – trees, earth and vines, along with millions of bone-coloured vine stakes wheeling past as you travel through, like crosses in a vast war cemetery. The place names that line the N74 – Gevrey-Chambertin, Vougeot, Vosne-Romanée, Nuits-St-Georges, Pommard, Volnay, Meursault Beaune – are music to the ears of wine buffs. But apart from the busy tourist centre of Beaune, they turn out to be sleepy, dull though exceedingly prosperous villages, full of houses inhabited by well-heeled vignerons. You can make a very good living on a patch of four or five hectares, the average-sized plot, the proof being that none is ever up for sale. There are numerous caves where you can taste (usually for a charge of €4.50–6) and buy the local elixir, but remember that the former is meant to be a prelude to the latter. And there's no such thing as a cheap wine here, red or white, €15–18 being the minimum price you'll pay for a bottle. The Hautes Côtes (Nuits and Beaune) – wines from the top of the slope – are cheaper, but they lack the connoisseur cachet of the big names.
Pages in section ‘Côte d'Or’: Beaune.
Alternate spellings:: cote, cotes, ore, dor
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