Collins Corner #25 – The Good Doctor

This week Robert Collins is flying low over the Hospice de Beaune and its Cortons … yet respecting the recommended 2 meters distance to friends and foes.

I opened a bottle of Hospices wine for Easter.  A very quiet time this year, more significant than normal.  Like many of you, I spent the day ‘sheltered’, alone with my thoughts, and a chance to silently offer a prayer for all those that did not take a day of rest, worldwide, the good Doctors performing under adverse conditions.

I chose, not accidentally, a bottle of Corton, The Dr. Peste Cuvee, Grand cru, for this occasion.  Doctor Jean-Louis Peste was a very capable physician in the 19th century, and was the mayor of Beaune at one time. His daughter made a significant donation to the Hospices in 1924, and thus assured he would not be forgotten at the Hospices.

When I first went to Beaune, back in the 1970’s, the only Grand cru wines in the Hospices offerings was Corton [both red and white] and for the old guy, me, it is still a favored place.  The Corton Doctor Peste always uses grapes from the tiny Fietres vineyard, a special place in my heart.  Decades ago I used to stay in a hotel in the town of Aloxe, and went out my back door very early each morning to have a first cup of coffee while regarding the vines of Fietres. It was a magical time, and always evokes memories when I have a glass of Corton.

I have to thank Laurent Gottis fine book on the Hospices to remind me of the irony in his name.

Arriving as a patient in that era in Beaune, and being examined by ‘Doctor Plague’!  The founding of the Hospices de Beaune takes note; its mission is to provide health care for the poor.  Founded mid fifteen century when life seemed apocalyptic, only 5 years later the worst famine of the middle ages descended on Beaune.  Plague soon followed.  

The shadow casts itself today, I think of the church in Beaune, unopened on easter, closed by a similar event hundreds of years later.  In all that time, the Hospices de Beaune mission is unchanged.  Generations have survived and thrived.  I end with hope for the future and future generations.  My bottle may seem like an insignificant contribution to the mission, but it is larger than that.

Stay safe.  Keep your spirits up. Pandemics will pass, and life will revive.  Your friend in wine,  Bob