Records tumbled at last Sunday’s Hospices de Beaune 2018 wine auction, with just over €14m of 2018 Burgundy passing under the hammer – money which will be used to fund the Hospital and its associated good works in the months and years to come. ‘Great Wines for a Great Cause’ is the motto.

Prices reached heights sufficient to give the local newspaper, Le Bien Public’s reporter a nose bleed! Fortunately this event reflects the desire to support the Charity of Les Hospices de Beaune rather than the market in general.

I have a small role in helping to promote the Hospices de Beaune ‘Vente des Vins’ around the world. The real star is Ludivine Griveau, the Regisseur of the Domaine Viticole of the Hospices de Beaune. She manages a team of 23 vignerons who tend the vines across 117 different plots in order to make 828 barrels divided between 50 different cuvées. Chapeau, Ludivine!