The first book ever devoted to the wines of Burgundy was written by a monk named Claude Arnoux and published in London in 1728.  Not content with merely describing the vineyards, he detailed the best crus of each wine-growing village (already being sold under the name of their appellation).

Wine-tasting began to develop its own vocabulary.  Descriptions of colour, aroma and taste became increasingly precise.  And now the négociant-éleveur comes on the scene.  The first one we know of is Champy in 1720 but many others followed in his footsteps, active especially on the far side of the Rhine. Now the upper classes of Burgundy began to take a serious interest in wine-growing and, as the influence of the monasteries declined, so they increasingly took up the baton.

In 1760, Louis-François de Bourbon, Prince of Conti, acquired a "clos" (walled vineyard) belonging to the Abbey of St. Vivant at Vosne.  Its name was La Romanée and he made a brilliant success of it.  Then a tourist, and a notable one, came on the scene: in 1787 Thomas Jefferson visited the Burgundy vineyards and wrote the first account of them by an outsider.

Two centuries later, the hierarchy of wines laid down by Jefferson remains valid and it was he who installed the first bottles of burgundy in the cellars of the White House.

Then came the revolution of 1789, a time of general upheaval.

Clerical possessions were confiscated, as were those of some of the nobility.  They became "national" property and were quickly sold at auction.  Vineyards were included in this large-scale redistribution of wealth.  Many of the best crus went to the Burgundian middle-class or to Parisian speculators.  But even revolutionaries have a feeling for publicity.  So La Romanée became Romanée-Conti.  The Prince was no longer the owner, but his name still lent a certain glamour.