Dijon sits at the top of the Côte d'Or, where the Burgundian plain meets the long limestone escarpment that carries some of the most expensive vineyards in the world. The UNESCO listing called the Climats of Burgundy covers those vineyards and the towns that grew around them, and the label's last word, cut short, means Dijon itself, the old ducal capital where the Valois dukes ruled a territory that rivalled the French crown. The Palace of the Dukes and Estates, now a museum and town hall, still dominates the central square, and the pedestrian streets around it are full of half-timbered houses and fine stone doorways.
A climat, in Burgundian speech, is a named plot of vineyard, with its own soil, slope and microclimate recognised over centuries, mostly through the work of Cistercian monks at Cîteaux and Cluniac monks elsewhere. The point of the listing is that the label on the bottle is a piece of geography, and that two vines a few metres apart can give wines of different price. For a rider that means the Route des Grands Crus, the D974, which heads south from Dijon through Gevrey-Chambertin, Vosne-Romanée and Nuits-Saint-Georges to Beaune and onward, with the names of famous wines flashing past on road signs.
The riding is gentle rather than dramatic, a procession of low stone villages, vineyard walls and small churches. Turn off onto the little lanes through the vines, where you can ride slowly and see the individual plots, usually marked by stone walls and the occasional cross. Late September and October bring harvest traffic and tractors, but also golden leaves and the smell of crushed grapes. In July the hills shimmer, and on winter mornings frost can sit on the slope.
Dijon is a city of about a hundred and fifty thousand, so fuel, parking and food are easy. Mustard has been made here since the Middle Ages, and the gingerbread called pain d'épices is a local specialty, along with the blackcurrant liqueur crème de cassis that, mixed with white wine, became the kir named after a wartime mayor, Canon Félix Kir. Look for the little owl carved on the wall of Notre-Dame church, which people stroke for luck. Take care in the city, where tram tracks and cobbles can catch a wheel.