page_title: Corton-Charlemagne
section_title: History and name
hierarchical_section_title: Corton-Charlemagne / History and name
context_page_description: Corton-Charlemagne is an Appellation d'origine contrôlée and Grand Cru vineyard for white wine in Côte de Beaune subregion of Burgundy. It is located in the communes of Aloxe-Corton, Pernand-Vergelesses and Ladoix-Serrigny with Chardonnay being the only permitted grape variety. Around 300,000 bottles of white wine are produced each year in the appellation.
  Corton-Charlemagne is named after the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, who once owned the hill of Corton on which the vineyards now rest. The first mention of a Clos de Charlemagne dates to 1375, in a lease of the 'Clos le Charlemagne' by the Chapitre de Saint-Androche-de- Saulieu. According to later legend, the vineyards are dedicated to white grape varieties because the emperor's wife preferred white wines as they did not stain his beard. The AOC was created in 1937.
  The vines are located on the higher ground of a hilltop that stretches between the Burgundian villages of Ladoix-Serrigny and Pernand-Vergelesses. The slopes planted with the most valuable vineyards face south-east on the hilltop, with the land gradually sloping downwards towards the major French highway Route 74.
context_section_description: The hill of Corton that the contains Corton-Charlemagne AOC is located behind (north/northwest) the commune of Aloxe-Corton. The commune itself has had a long history dating to its time as a 3rd-century AD Roman outpost on the road from Marseilles to Autun. It was known then as Aulociacum but over the centuries the name eventually evolved into Alossia, Alussa, Alouxe and then, by the turn of the 17th century, it was known as Aloxe. In 1862, the name "Corton" was appended to the name in reference to the notable Le Corton vineyards that already had wide recognition. The name Corton was a corruption of Curtis d'Orthon meaning Domaine of Otho in reference to the first-century Roman emperor.
  Vineyards were recorded on the hill by 696 AD though it very likely that they were planted much earlier. In the late 8th century AD, the land was owned by Charlemagne: in 775 he gave most of the hill of Corton to the Abbey of St. Andoche in Saulieu,  which had been destroyed by Saracens in 731.
  According to legend, Charlemagne noted to the Abbey sections of the slope where the snow melted first and ordered that grapevines be planted on that slope. His orders were followed and the hill of Corton was planted first entirely with red grape varieties. A couple decades later, Charlemagne's fourth wife Luitgard was said to be displeased with red wine drippings on the white beard of the king and ordered that a section of the hill be pulled up and replanted with white grape varieties—a section that is today known as Corton-Charlemagne.
  Though written records have noted acclaim for the white wine from the region as early as the 8th century, the early 19th century wine writer André Jullien made no mention of any white wine being made in Corton in his 1816 catalog of wine regions Topographie de tous les vignobles connus. However, Chardonnay is believed to be the "pinot blanc" mentioned by Dr. Jules Lavalle in his 1855 work on the terroir of the Côte d'Or, Histoire et Statistique de la Vigne de Grands Vins de la Côte-d'Or. In this work Lavalle noted that Pinot noir was planted on the middle slopes and lower ground of the Corton hill while "pinot blanc" was found on the higher slopes—an arrangement that is roughly the same as the vineyard plantings on the hill today.
caption: Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne who, as King of the Franks, gave the hill of Corton to the abbey of St. Andoche.
exif: {}