M. Chapoutier - 2005 - Ermitage Vin de Paille - 375 ml

Ermitage wines possess a rich historical past. They were appreciated as early on as Roman times when they were enjoyed (as well as Côte Rotie wines) under the name of " Vienne wines "and were later to be called " Saint Christopher's hillside wines " because of a chapel there bearing the saint's name. They were also to be known of as " Tournon wines ". The name of Ermitage probably first appeaRed in the XVIIth Century in memory of Henry Gaspard, a knight from Stérimberg : who having come back from the Crusades (in the XIIIth Century) and tiRed of waging war, lived as a hermite on a hillside which had been given to him by Anne of Castille, Queen of Spain. There he planted a vineyard. Alexander Dumas as well as the Tsar Nicholas II are among the many connoisseurs of this particularly highly estimated wine.