Burgundy in Lucca for a dinner built around bottles

If you searched for “Burgundy Lucca”, you are probably not looking for a geography lesson. You are looking for a specific bottle, a table where you can drink it well and something to eat without turning the evening into a ceremony. At Via Calderia 12, a few steps from Piazza San Michele, we bring together Burgundy, Tuscany and a short, focused menu. It is a deliberate choice.

Most people who walk in order Tuscan. Brunello di Montalcino, Bolgheri, Barolo, Sangiovese and Vermentino are the bottles we see most often on the tables. It makes sense: you are in Lucca for one or three nights and you want to drink the place you are in. But Burgundy is a substantial part of our wine list, not a decorative corner to mention when we want to make an impression.

Burgundy in Lucca, without turning it into an exercise

We have almost 200 labels, mostly Italian and French. We select them bottle by bottle and the list changes every week. The numbers are not there to impress: they explain why one evening there may be an old Tuscan vintage you will not see often, and the next a Burgundy from a small producer next to a better-known name.

What interests us about Burgundy is how well it sits at the table. We do not treat it as an object for a display case. It can accompany a full dinner, a selection from the pantry or simply a conversation that has run longer than expected. The point is not to order the bottle that is hardest to pronounce. The point is to find the right one for your table.

Some guests arrive with a very clear idea: a bottle of Burgundy, perhaps from a producer they have been looking for for some time. Some start with a Brunello and want to see where the evening can go next. And some stop by for a glass and end up sharing focaccia and cheese. All three are fine by us.

Our French selection includes Burgundy and Champagne, from the major houses to small growers, and a Bordeaux Experience with châteaux from the 1980s onwards. It is not a list built to pit France against Italy. Tuscany remains the first language of the dining room. France adds a second accent, useful when you are looking for depth, memory or a less obvious bottle.

Tuscany first, then the rest of the list

In Lucca it makes little sense to pretend that everyone comes looking for a Burgundy. Many international guests ask for Chianti Classico, Brunello, Bolgheri or a Sangiovese to drink now. We start there, without forcing the conversation elsewhere.

Tuscany has enough range to accompany very different tables. A Vermentino can go well with the focaccia, the Campanian tomato, the Tuscan olive oil and the Maldon salt. A more structured red can follow the slow-cooked beef roast, with chimichurri sauce and tangy beef jus. The sweet and sour pork ribs call for yet another direction: it depends on how much you want the wine to support the dish or lighten it.

We do not treat pairings as rules. If there are two of you and you feel like an important bottle, we will not tell you it is too much. If instead you want to eat light, the pantry can be more useful than a full menu: cured meats from Culatta di Parma to Jamón 100% Ibérico de Bellota, Italian and French cheeses from Tuscan pecorino to Jura Comté, Gillardeau oysters and caviar.

This is where Burgundy can come in naturally. Not because it is compulsory, but because some wines have that sense of measure that leaves room for food and conversation. On other evenings, Brunello remains the most sensible choice. A good wine list exists precisely so that you do not have to defend a single answer.

Rotating wines by the glass, a reason to come back

If you live in Lucca, on the Lucca plain or in Versilia, a list of bottles only matters up to a point if you have no concrete reason to come back during the week. That is why we keep a selection of wines by the glass that changes often. Sometimes it is the simplest way to drink a Burgundy without building the dinner around a single bottle. Other times we pour a less predictable Tuscan vintage by the glass.

A glass is not a scaled-down version of the experience. It is a useful choice when you are on your own, when there are two of you with different tastes, or when you want to start with one wine and decide later. Come in for a focaccia to tear and share, order a glass, look at the list and let’s see what happens. There is no need to plan too much.

For those who want to spend more time with the bottle, we organize guided tastings by reservation from 20 euros. They are not classroom courses. They are tables, open bottles and a conversation built around what you feel like drinking. We can also do this for private events, with a tasting flight we decide together in advance.

A cellar that has received attention, but remains a dining room

In 2025 Star Wine List gave us the Best Newcomer award. In 2026 came the Best Medium-Sized Wine List. Wine Spectator gave us the Best of Award of Excellence in 2025 and in 2026. We are pleased, naturally.

But awards have a very practical limit: they do not choose the bottle for you, they do not slice the focaccia and they do not make the table more interesting. They are a signal for those who travel and look for a serious cellar in Lucca. After that, what counts is what happens in the dining room, bottle after bottle.

For us, an award-winning list has to stay readable and alive. That is why we change the selection every week. Bottles come in, some run out, others come back when we manage to find them again. We do not build a list to leave it frozen. We build it to open it.

When to come for Burgundy in Lucca

We are open in the evening, Monday to Saturday, from 18:00 to 23:00. If you are in town for a short time, booking for the same evening is perfectly normal. If you are looking for a particular bottle of Burgundy, Champagne, Bordeaux or an old Tuscan vintage, it is worth telling us when you book. We do not promise a bottle we do not have. We prefer to check and make a good suggestion.

You can book through OpenTable or call us on +39 376 203 5395. Come with a precise request, or with no idea beyond “red, not too heavy”. Either is enough to get started.

If your idea of Burgundy in Lucca is a bottle drunk with attention but without theater, take a seat at the table. We bring the list; you choose how far to go.

Pier Giulio Bendinelli