And it almost didn’t happen.
As of Thursday, Barrel Thief added a pretty special bottle of wine to the inventory, a 2005 Coche-Dury Corton-Charlemagne. This one doesn’t go on the shelf though, nor does it leave its cardboard box and styrofoam shell, with the exception of a picture and some light fondling, of course.
It’s a special wine, from a special vineyard. The vintage and producer… all special. At first we thought we were getting 2 bottles, then it appeared we were beaten to the punch. But after a few weeks of, ah—well, I don’t really know what—we ended up with a bottle.
Corton-Charlemagne, a Grand Cru Vineyard in Côte de Beaune, a Burgundy sub-region, produces but one grape: Chardonnay. The story is that this particular section of the hill is that it was converted to Chardonnay by French emperor Charlemagne after urging from his wife. She wanted a wine that would not stain his ample beard.
The rest is history.
Corton-Charlemagne is an astonishing demonstration of what the Chardonnay grape is capable of in terms of richness, power, concentration, distinction and balance. Rarely do we see such a perfect synthesis between grape variety and terroir. -Burgundy Wines, 2000 years of heritage
Cheers!
-Rob.
Don’t drop it!