Fully
Restored 15th Century Manor in the French Cote
d'Or A rare combination of rustic countryside and grand
estate lifestyle in one of the world's principal centers
for fine wine and cuisine.
What: Magnificent
15th century estate,
meticulously restored with complete 21st century
systems. The estate consists of eight acres, comprising
three large buildings, an acre of enclosed gardens
filled with lilac and rose bushes held within ancient
12-foot stone walls, as well as micro-climate orchards,
scented walking paths, a horse pasture, a small
lake and an immense tour de garde, or guard tower.
Where: Beaune,
Burgundy, France. Beaune
is the center of the Cote d'Or, the
limestone ridge which is the most prized
wine terroir in the world. Burgundy
proper begins with Dijon and ends with
Lyon, and Beaune is 40 minutes south
of Dijon. The lovely wine road which
connects Dijon and Beaune is the N-74
or "Route des Grands Crus" - "The Route
of Great Wine Productions".
Asking
Price: $4,400,000
Amenities: The
estate includes a 7,000-square foot,
three-story grand and fully renovated manoir,
a 7,000-square foot rustically remodeled
dependent building which currently
houses an apartment for the on-premises
guardian, a winery and storage, as
well as a gardening room. In addition,
there is a third building suitable
for remodeling into a large dwelling
replete with elements of the 16th century.
This space is 2,000 square feet. The
manoir and all other buildings
have ancient tile roofs and are made
of immense oak beams, or charpente/poudres,
and hewn limestone.
The manoir includes a beautifully
appointed kitchen with a Lancanche
piano stove and all small appliances
necessary for grand cuisine. Next to
the kitchen sits a stunning dining
area with a period fireplace equipped
with a medieval rotisserie and
iron fire plaque emblazoned with Joan
of Arc riding a griffon and the French
king kneeling before her. The dining
room table seats 12 to 16. There are
laundry facilities and two guest restrooms
adjacent. The magnificent salon boasts plafond
Francaise of the period of the
Hospices de Beaune (1436) as does the
cuisine and dining room. The large
salon has dalles, the original
12-inch deep limestone floors of the
period. At the end of the salon is
a spectacular
staircase cut from a single mass of
limestone from Chassagne.
Amenities:
Next to the salon is the current master chambre,
which may serve as an elegant parlor. Upstairs
are three magnificently appointed suites, each
with salle de bain of the finest appointment
as well as comparable toilettes. The salle
de bains are appointed with local colored
stone and Jacob de Lafond fixtures in brushed nickel.
Also upstairs is the Tapestry Room which is the
game and cognac emporium.
Grounds and Landscape:
The landscape was designed by Enterprise Jean-Cluade
Pluyaut, the family who created the landscape of
Beaune proper. The Domaine has three acres of wild
pasture, two acres of grass behind the manoir,
and one acre of berries, potager and one
acre orchard.
The potager and berry patch include gold
and red raspberries, cassis, groseille and gooseberry.
Each year, gardens are planted with heirloom tomatoes,
leeks, carrots, greens and autumn pumpkin and squash.
Cutting gardens offer 20 varieties of long stem
flowers which are floribunda and suitable for decoration
in the manoir or for gift giving.The orchard
of 21 fruit-producing trees includes
two dark plum, one Mirabelle, four black cherry, one
Coeur de Pigeon cherry, one Griotte cherry, six pear
and six apple. The Zen Garden, with water element and
ancient fireplace, sits inside an ancient wall and
offers private access from the master suite.The estate's
parks include 35 ancient trees, 100 rose bushes, 30
perennial herbs, sitting areas, pathways for strolling,
picnic areas, a lilac forest, pond and picnic area.
Wine and Cuisine: The
Cote d'Or, so named by Louis XIV in honor of
the golden leaves of the vines in autumn, is one of
the world's principal centers for fine wine and
cuisine.The estate is just 20 minutes from the
greatest names in Burgundy, such as Domaine Romanee
Conti and Le Montrachet.
Almost all of the Three-Star Michelin restaurants
in France are located in Burgundy, Alsace and Paris.
Those in Burgundy are Lameloise, George Blanc, Oiseau,
Bocuse and Leon de Lyon.
Each year in the winemaking facility at the estate,
three barrels of wine are produced with grapes from
Montagne de Beaune. Dating back to the 17th century,
the vaulted ceiling wine cave at
the estate is original to the property and has
a capacity of 2,000 bottles.
The horsedrawn pressoir was made nearby
in Pommard and has been used in the North Valley
since the 19th century.
Provenance: The
ownership can be traced to the year 1269 when the motte,
or mound, and its vestiges were owned by the Commanderie
of Beaune, an order of knights made up of the Templier
and the Hospitalier knights. When the Chevalier Templier
were killed in 1307 by the French king, Philip IV,
the Domaine was owned by the Chevalier Hospitalier.
The estate appears again in records in 1351, with
the beginning of the Hundred Years War, as the site
of the Chevalier Hospitalier, and again in 1452 and
1467, when the owner was the Comte de Charny, ne
the Comte de Beaufremont, who held the largest tournament
of armored knights in the history of medieval Burgundy
and whose memorial stone rests near the head of the
tombs of the Ducs of Burgundy in Dijon, France. It
was referred to on the Cassini map of 1789, which
is interesting because that is the year of the French
revolution. There is a small drawing of the estate
on this map. The estate was mapped again by Napoleon
in the year 1826 and the property plan is virtually
unchanged today. The Hundred Years War ended in 1452
and with it the use of the estate as a maison
fortifie, or fortified house. For the next 250
years, until the French revolution, it was “all
farming” as the historians put it. With the
revolution, the ownership changed again, but the
fertile lands continued to produce cassis and other
fruit from the plains which stretch to the feet of
the mountain range that became degraded to produce
the Cote d'Or which always looms in
view of Le Poil.
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