The American Couple Behind Burgundy's Chic New Wine Retreat

Wine tourism remains a major draw even as wine consumption fluctuates, yet France’s wine regions have often lacked convenient, high-quality places to stay and eat outside normal hours. Denise Dupré and Mark Nunnelly, founders of Champagne Hospitality, aim to address this gap. Their company, founded in 2012, operates the Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa near Épernay, owns the luxury villa Les 3 Clochers, and runs the biodynamic champagne house Leclerc-Briant with a restaurant and guest rooms. The couple are now expanding into Burgundy with Château la Commaraine in Pommard, positioned as the region’s first five-star hotel. The project is personally meaningful because they first saw the estate during a cycling tour of local vineyards.

"Wine consumption may be having a wobble, but when it comes to travel, good wine (and food) remains a big draw. Indeed, gastrotourism is now one of tourism's fastest-growing sectors. So it's surprising how short France's famous wine regions have historically been on nice places to stay. Even finding a bite to eat or a drink out-of-hours can often prove astoundingly difficult."

"Founded in 2012, this company is best-known for the five-star Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa just outside Champagne's 'second city', Épernay. It also owns the nearby luxury villa Les 3 Clochers and the pioneering biodynamic champagne house Leclerc-Briant, which has a restaurant and guest rooms (the portfolio also includes a luxury hotel and villas on St Barths)."

"Now, the couple are tackling Burgundy, with the launch of Château la Commaraine in the village of Pommard, an enterprise being billed as the region's first five-star hotel. Opening in Burgundy is particularly meaningful, says Dupré, because it's where the couple got engaged (the pair, a hospitality professor and a former MD at Bain Capital, are based in Boston but spend a lot of time in France, and also have an apartment in Paris)."

"It was while they were on a cycling tour of Pommard's vineyards, around ten years ago, that they first glimpsed Commaraine. "There is a true Burgundian character to the estate, and I was drawn to that sincerity," says Dupré. "It felt like an opportunity to preserve something meaningful while giving it a new life.""

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