Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte

In the city Ajaccio on the French Mediterranean island Corsica Born Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was crowned in 1804 in succession of his perceived by Charlemagne (742-814) himself emperor. Apart from his public ministry, we now know about his private life very much, because there is a multi-volume biography, the 20th from his Age every day of his life in at least a few lines describing. From his personal inclinations is well known that he loved tobacco, women and wine. At least three wines is claimed that she's Favorite wines were. The most common is the red wine (Pinot Noir) from the famous Burgundian appellation Gevrey-Chambertin on the Côte de Nuits called, but he often diluted with water. The second is the progenitor of the white Pouilly-Fumé from the upper Loire. And the third is the precursor of the red Rossese Dolceacqua from the Italian region of Liguria near the French border. Even the best qualities of wine he was surprisingly mostly mixed with water.

Also, the cognac has a special relationship. In 1811, Napoleon visited the wine merchant Emmanuel Courvoisier in the liquor store in Paris, from which emerged then in 1835 the famous cognac house. This company later led a deliberate reference to this supreme visit the Cognac brand name "Napoleon" with the one included on the label silhouette of the emperor. Of course, Napoleon also like the national drink of champagne drunk. He was a close friend of Jean-Rémy Moët, the founder's grandson of the famous Champagne house Moet et Chandon . And with the liberation of the city of Reims in 1814 by the Prussians and Cossacks, he stayed at the house of the brother of Madame Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin .

Napoelon commented on the enjoyment of champagne after the victory you deserve it, after the defeat you need it is said, the Emperor also. Sabrage invented (by saber champagne heads) and maintained their customs to the battles won with his officers. His first wife Josephine loved the wine from the famous location and AC Coulée de Serrant Savennières in the Loire valley. A wine has been shown, however, Napoleon enjoyed until his death and had him regularly in large quantities to be delivered in exile on the island of St. Helena. This was the famous dessert wine Constantia in South Africa. The legendary vintage 1811er was called "Napoleon wine," because the emperor was at that time reached the height of his fame.

During the French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1815) was to come to Germany to complete secularization of goods. Collection or use of church possessions such as land or property into secular hands of the state had already occurred before, but the process was the most comprehensive of Napoleon, who had held until then. Almost all the ecclesiastical states were resolved and some 95,000 km2 area with more than three million people changed their owners. The French eastern border was moved up to the Rhine and brought so many German princes to their possessions left bank. Affected were the capital cities and a large part of the dominion of the three ecclesiastical electorates Electorate of Cologne, Electorate of Mainz and Trier and the Palatinate, which were now part of France. A total of four of the eight Kurwürden were fully offset.

In the so-called imperial deputations main conclusion was established in 1803, that the dispossessed secular princes should be reconciled with the Church and secularized by smaller secular rulers. Furthermore, the spiritual principalities were dissolved transmitted with the exception of Mainz, the remaining territory on right bank of the Rhine was in Regensburg. This also had a major impact on the wine, as many formerly in the possession of the Church located wineries and vineyards have been sold and were thereby in worldly possessions. Examples of this are the wineries Josephshöfer , Paulinshof , Schlossgut Istein and Schloss Johannisberg .