Charlemagne and the Legends of the Origin of Corton Charlemagne White Wine

​​Today there is cause for a drink: 20,000 subscribers! So I find myself in the modest company of a Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru. This wine is sometimes called the great white wine of Burgundy, and not without reason. After the victory over the Saracens in 732, the grandfather of Charlemagne confiscated from Burgundy, for the insufficient valour of its armies, several estates, among them the hill of Corton, named in its turn after the Roman emperor Otho.

Charlemagne took great interest in his vineyards, including those in the Loire valley, Lorraine, Alsace and the Rheingau, and personally issued instructions on the handling of the harvest, on sales, on the dispatch of wine to court and on the planting of vines. There is a myth that the vineyards at Corton were planted on Charlemagne's personal orders, yet there are much earlier mentions of vineyards in this locality, as early as 696.

The appearance of the legendary white wine, however, is explained by another legend. Charlemagne's fourth wife, Luitgard, was troubled by the sight of drops of red wine on his full white beard and persuaded him to plant the famous 4.5 hectares of white Chardonnay on Corton. The snag is that the marriage of Charles and Luitgard fell at a time when Charles had already given these lands to the Church. This, however, is easily mended, if we suppose that the remark about the red drops was made by his mother, Bertrada of Laon.

Historians may quarrel with both versions, for in all likelihood Charles had no beard at all, and its ubiquitous depiction is no more than an old iconographic tradition. It is another matter if Charles planted vineyards for white wine out of diplomatic advantage in his dealings with Offa, King of Mercia, who was ready to exchange wool for Charlemagne's white wine.

In short, 🥂your health, comrades and colleagues! And do not change the channel)