Each November, Alliance member and winemaker/importer Scott Wright of Scott Paul Wines is lucky enough to attend the world-famous Hospices de Beaune auction which benefits the charity hospital that the local wineries have supported with donations of vineyard land - in fact, the Hospital is today the largest vineyard owner in Burgundy. The Hospices operates their own winery in Beaune, where they vinify the 45 different wines they produce from their vineyard holdings each year. Potential buyers are invited to taste the newly fermented wines in the Hospice’s cellars each November, just a few days before the annual auction. Restaurauteurs, importers, and individual buyers from around the world choose the wine/wines they are most interested in, and then bid for individual barrels of them at the auction. Winning bidders then have the option to choose a Burgundian winery who will then take the barrel into their cellars for elevage and bottling. A year and a half later, the wine is bottled and ready for release. For each of the last several years the Wrights have purchased a barrel of the “Beaune 1er Cru Cuvée Maurice Drouhin” – which always comes from three choice parcels of vineyards in Beaune that were donated to the Hospices by Maurice Drouhin – the grandfather of Domaine Drouhin Oregon winemaker Veronique Drouhin. Because of Scott’s relationship with the Drouhin family, they always choose Maison Joseph Drouhin in Beaune to do the elevage and bottling for any of their purchases at the auction.

The winning bidder will take home this cherished magnum.