2. In ancient Greece, the dinner host
would take the first sip of wine to
ensure it was safe to drink, giving us
the phrase to “drink to one’s health.”
3. The tradition of a celebratory “toast”
began with the ancient Romans, who
would drop a piece of toasted bread
in their wine to buffer unpleasant
tastes and excessive acidity.
4. The Romans also boiled wine in lead
pots and mixed lead with wine to
help preserve it and impart a sweet
flavor. There is much debate among
historians about how much lead
poisoning contributed to the decline
of the empire.
5. The alcohol bill for a celebration party
for the 55 drafters of the
Constitution was 54 bottles of
Madeira, 60 bottles of Bordeaux,
eight bottles of whiskey, 22 bottles
of port, eight bottles of hard cider,
12 beers and seven bowls of alcohol
punch large enough that “ducks
could swim in them.”
6. In 1801, President Thomas Jefferson
spent $3,000 on wine, 12 percent of
his annual salary. To put that in
modern context, that would be like
President Obama spending $48,000
on wine this year alone.
7. When Tutankhamun’s tomb was
opened in 1922, wine jars buried
alongside him were labeled with the
year, the name of the winemaker and
descriptions about the quality of the
wine. The labels could actually
comply with modern wine label laws
of several countries today.
8. One glass of wine consists of juice
from one cluster of grapes. Seventyfive grapes comprise one cluster.
One grape vine produces 10 bottles.
One acre can contain 400 vines,
resulting in five tons of grapes. On
average, five tons of grapes can be
made in to 300 cases or 3,600
bottles of finished wine.
9. Wine grapes rank first among the
world’s fruit crops in terms of acres
planted.
10. California, by itself, is the world’s
fourth largest producer of wine after
France, Italy and Spain.
11. The average age of a French oak tree
harvested for use in creating wine
barrels is 170 years
12. The Whistler Tree is the most productive cork
oak tree on record. It grows in Portugal and
is more than 230 years old. Harvested on a
9-year cycle, in 2009, it yielded enough
cork for 100,000 bottles.
As a comparison, the average cork oak
produces material for 4,000 bottles.
Named for the countless songbirds that
occupy its dense canopy, the Whistler Tree
is in excellent condition and is well on its
way to produce a total lifetime production
of more than one million corks
13. The first recognizable wine made from
grapes was produced in Bronze Age
Georgia and Iran (c 6000BC),
although rice wine was already being
made in China.
14. The tannins that give red wine its
complex flavour and longevity are
produced by the grape to deter
caterpillars.
15. Before cork was used, oil-soaked rags
were stuffed into bottles.
16. Coca-Cola owes its existence to wine. In the
mid 19th century ''tonic'' wines became
popular. These were often fortified with
coca.
An American version, Pemberton's French
Wine Coca, was produced by John
Pemberton and developed a following
among the city's intellectuals. In 1885 local
prohibition laws forced him to produce a
non-alcoholic version, which he pepped up
with caffeine-rich kola nuts from Africa.
The rest of the story is history.
17. There were ways around alcohol
prohibition. Some US grape-juices
manufacturers would add a label to
their product which read: ''CAUTION!
Do not add these grapes to five
gallons of water and five pounds of
sugar with yeast, or it will ferment
into wine, which is ILLEGAL.''
18. The dark green wine bottle was an
English invention, the work of Sir
Kenelm Digby (1603-1665), a
Catholic polymath and diplomat,
who also managed his family's coalfired gasworks.
Previously wine had been kept in goat
skin bags.
