Pour a glass of your favorite wine on May 25 to participate in National Wine Day. Celebrated each year, it has a sister holiday in February, National Drink Wine Day.
- 4100 BC – Archaeologists discovered evidence of winemaking in an Armenian cave, including cups and jars for holding wine, wine presses, and vats for fermentation, and even grape seeds and vines.
- 6000 BC – Although it had been believed that the earliest wines were made around the fourth century B.C., much older wine has been found in what is now the country of Georgia.
- 7000 BC – The oldest evidence of wine that we have dates way back to 7000 BC China. Many ancient civilizations celebrated the effects of wine and often used it for religious observance.
- 325 AD – Speyer, Germany, is home to the oldest bottle of wine in the world. It is on display at the historical museum in the town, and it dates back to an impressive AD 325.
- 1628 – New Mexico becomes the first region in America to begin producing wine.
- 1833 – President Lincoln held an actual liquor license back in his days in Salem, Illinois. For a modest $7 dollars, in 1833, he and his partner William F. Berry got a tavern license that permitted them to sell a “1/2 pint of wine or French brandy for $.25
- 1860’s – a French chemist made a fortune selling red wine mixed with cocaine. His “Vin Mariani” was endorsed by Queen Victoria, President McKinley, and Pope Leo XIII. – Source
- 1964 – Although sangria was introduced to the U.S. in the 1940s, its popularity spikes after the 1964 World’s Fair in New York.
- 1976 – there was a wine tasting in Paris that blindly compared Californian wines to French wines. California won and the lone reporter covering the event was blacklisted for reporting it. – Source
- 2005 – a study found that the scores of “wine experts” are essentially meaningless, revealing that a typical judge’s scoring of a wine varied by plus/minus four points over three blind tastings poured from the same bottle. – Source
- 2008 – the top five wine-producing states in the U.S. were California (3.4 million tons of grapes crushed for wine), Washington (145,000 tons), New York (45,000 tons), Oregon (40,000 tons), and Pennsylvania (13,200 tons).
- Today, wine is one of the most widely produced and consumed drinks in the world. Chardonnay, Merlot, Riesling, Syrah – there are so many types to choose from.
- Move over, cork, and make way for screw caps. Today, screw caps are replacing corks on more than just inexpensive bottles. Currently, screw caps seal 75 percent of Australian wines and 93 percent of New Zealand wines, and they’re gaining popularity in all countries, including here in the U.S.
- Winemakers will combine different wines to create more complex flavors.
- Wines made from fruit or honey are often named according to the variety of fruit used.
- It is a common misconception that all wines improve with age. In fact, more than 90 percent of all wines should be consumed within one year. The three major collectibles that should age more than 10 years are: a great Châteaux of Bordeaux, the best producers of California Cabernet Sauvignon, and the finest producers of vintage port.
- The top three imported wines sold in the U.S. are Yellowtail (Australia), Cavit (Italy), and Concha y Toro (Chile).
- The term bouquet refers to the total scent of the wine. Aroma is the scent of the grapes. When wine tasters want to describe the bouquet and the aroma together, they use the term nose.
- As white wines age, they gain color. Red wines, on the other hand, lose color as they age. To analyze your glass of wine, hold the glass on an angle in front of a white background, such as a napkin or tablecloth. White wines can range from a pale yellow-green to a brownish hue. Reds begin at purple and scale all the way to brown.
- California has more Chardonnay grapes than anyplace in the world. It has been the most successful white grape in the state, yielding a wine of tremendous character and magnificent flavor. It is also the top selling varietal in the United States.
- According to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, there are 100 calories in a 5-ounce glass of wine (compared to 150 calories in a 12-ounce beer). Plus wine is a fat-free and cholesterol-free drink. Cheers!
- The ancient Greeks had a wine glass to ensure the drinker’s moderation. If wine was poured above a certain level, the cup spilled its entire contents out of the bottom. – Source
- During the prohibition, grape juice mix was sold with the warning “After dissolving the brick in a gallon of water, do not place the liquid in a jug away in the cupboard for twenty days, because then it would turn into wine.” – Source
- Prince Charles uses wine to power his vintage Aston Martin – Source
- Soy sauce contains 10 times the antioxidants of red wine. – Source
- You can open a bottle of wine with your shoe. Here is the video showing how it’s done.
- Intense fear or hatred of wine is called “oenophobia.”
- Back in the day, women could be killed for drinking wine! Yes, in the early Roman times, a husband was at liberty to kill his wife if he found her drinking wine. It was a forbidden drink for women.
- In order to get the exact quantity of antioxidants you get in wine, you would have to drink seven glasses of orange juice or if you prefer apple juice, you would need 20 glasses!
- The oldest known wine cellar is actually on the famous ship, Titanic. We know what you’re thinking; the Titanic sunk! However, when divers when down to the wreckage, they were surprised to see that most of the wine bottles were still intact.
- In Vietnam, if you are in the know and ask your waiter for a glass of cobra wine. They will serve you rice-wine covered with snake blood that is killed on the spot.
- The dark green wine bottle was an English invention, the work of Sir Kenelm Digby (1603-1665). Previously wine had been kept in goat skin bags.
- The custom of bumping glasses with a “cheers” greeting came from old Rome.
- The average age of a French oak tree harvested for use in creating wine barrels is 170 years.
- A survey from Australia once stated that women that drink 2 cups of wine a day tend to enjoy sex more than women who don’t drink at all.
- European wines are named after their geographic locations while non-European wines are named after different grape varieties.
- One glass of wine consists of juice from one cluster of grapes.
- Seventy-five grapes comprise one cluster.
- One grape vine produces 10 bottles.
- Why do you store wine lying down? If the bottle is standing up, the cork could dry out and dwindle, possibly dropping into the wine.
- Bottles that have animals on the label are known as “Critter Wine”.
- California is the fourth largest producer of wine in the world. The other three are France, Spain, and Italy.
- “Drinking to one’s health” came from ancient Greece. The host of dinner would take the first sip to assure his guests the wine was not poisoned.
- 55 degrees – the optimal temperature for storing wine.
- 60 gallons – the amount of wine in a single barrel.
- 4-10 – the number of clusters of grapes in a single bottle of wine.
- 10 – the number of bottles of wine that a single vineyard is able to produce.
- 100-150 – the number of calories in a single serving of wine.
- 2 grams – the number of carbohydrates in a single glass of wine.
- 10,000 – the number of different varieties of grapes worldwide.
- 700 million – the number of gallons of wine produced in the U.S. in 2020.
- $88 billion – the estimated value of the U.S. wine market in 2020.
- 7.3 million – the hectares of land that vineyards occupied worldwide in 2020.
- At 30 liters, the largest wine bottle size is named “Melchizedek” or “Midas” holding 200 glasses of wine.
- There are over 60,000 wine labels in the market today
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