Tasting etiquette
What to expect at a Burgundy tasting: spitting, buying and getting the wine home
Small-producer tastings run differently from a wine bar. Here's the etiquette that makes a Burgundy cellar visit easier, and what to know about buying and shipping.
See Burgundy wine tour tickets on GetYourGuide ↗Quick reference
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Do I have to spit? | No, but it helps across fourteen pours |
| Can I buy bottles? | Usually, yes, directly from the domaine |
| Can I ship wine home? | Ask the guide — options vary by domaine |
| Is there a dress code? | No — comfortable, closed shoes matter more |
| Minimum age | 18, as with any wine-tasting tour |
Spitting is normal, not rude
At a small domaine, a spittoon or bucket on the tasting table is standard, and using it is the expected way to taste several wines without losing the ability to properly judge the next one. Across fourteen pours in a single day, spitting most of what's offered — while still swallowing enough to taste a wine properly — is less about restraint and more about staying capable of noticing the differences the day is built to show.
Ask before you swirl and sniff like you've seen on television
A short swirl to release aroma and a proper sniff before tasting are genuinely useful, not performance — but a domaine's own host, or the tour guide, is a better source for how a given wine wants to be approached than any generic rule. Growers along the Route des Grands Crus taste their own wine for a living and are usually glad to walk a visitor through it properly rather than watch them guess.
Buying is normal, and often the point
Small Burgundy domaines are set up to sell directly, and many visitors on a tasting tour like this one leave with a bottle or two from a wine they particularly liked. Prices at the cellar door are often close to what you'd pay from an importer once shipping and markup are added — worth asking about rather than assuming a Beaune wine shop back in town is always cheaper.
Shipping is worth asking about before you fly
Checked luggage and wine bottles are a genuinely awkward combination, and airline rules on liquids make more than a bottle or two impractical to carry home by hand. Ask the guide or the domaine directly about shipping options on the day — arrangements vary by producer and by destination country, and it's a much easier conversation before you buy than after.
Dress for gravel, not for the cellar's reputation
Vineyard tracks are gravel and sometimes muddy, and cellar floors are often uneven stone. Comfortable, closed shoes matter far more to how the day goes than anything you'd wear to a nice restaurant — save that outfit for dinner in Beaune afterwards.