February 4th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Samuel Pepys reports going to the Nag’s Head Tavern with several old acquaintances and drank a bottle of sack (Sherry) with them in 1664.  The term “sack” comes from the Spanish “saca” which means extraction from a Solera.

• Carl Michael Bellman, a Swedish composer, musician, poet, and songwriter was born in 1740.  He is best known for Freedman’s songs and Freedman’s epistles which included themes of pleasure, drunkenness and sex.

• The Alsace - Klevener of Heiligenstein AOC was created in 1997 Rose of Savignin is a permitted grape for this region.

• It is the feast day of St. John de Britto, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary to India who evangelized by adopting the dress and diet of the the people by abstaining from all  meat products and wine. 

February 3rd - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• In 1468 Johannes Gutenberg died. He invented the method of printing from moveable type. One of the important innovations in his method was a new press, similar to the screw presses used in winemaking.

• Samuel Pepys reports in his diary that he went out with this cousin Roger to Priors, a Rhenish wine-house and had a “pint or two of wine and a dish of anchovies in1660.

• Woodrow Wilson died in 1924.  He was President at the beginning of Prohibition, which restricted the SALE of alcohol but not the consumption.  At the end of his term as president, Wilson had his wine collection moved to his new residence.

• The father of Washington State wines, Dr. Walter J. Clore died this day in 2003.

January 22nd - This Date in Wine History

DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Mark Logico, U.S. Navy/Released

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• George Gordon Byron, known as Lord Byron was born in 1788. He used a skull found at Newstead Abbey as a wine cup. He wrote the poem Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed from a Skull.

• Antonio Todde was born in1889.  A Sardinian shepherd, he is known for saying, "Just love your brother and drink a good glass of red wine every day".

• Alexandrina Victoria, known later as Queen Victoria died in 1901.  She was known for enjoying a mix of claret and whisky.

• Food Network star, Guy Fieri was born in 1968.  He is owner of Hunt & Ryde Winery.

• California's Atlas Peak AVA was designated in 1992.

• Feast day of Saint Vincent of Saragossa, patron saint of vintners.

January 8th - This Date in Wine History

Bacchante by Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history. 

• Russell de St. Maxentin of Hampshire, England was ordered to procure 40 tuns of good wine for the King’s use in 1225.

• Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Dutch-British artist  was born in 1836.  Mythological elements were often depicted in his work, especially Bacchus.  Additionally, he is described as being a lover of wine, women and parties.

• Prince Leo Galitzine founder of wine-making in Crimea died in 1916.

• The South African wine-making cooperative,Koöperatieve Wijnbouwers Vereniging van Zuid-Afrika Bpkt was founded in 1918.

January 7th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history. 

• Catherine of Aragon died in 1536. After the birth of her first child, Henry, Duke of Cornwall was born guns were fired, bells were rung, fires lit and free wine was given to the public. The baby did not survive.

• Joseph Bonaparte was born in 1768. He was made King of Spain by his brother Napoleon. He was very unpopular in Spain where they called his Pepe Botella despite being a teetotaler.

• Joseph Dennie, American author and journalist died in 1812. He was a Federalist who also published under the names Oliver Oldschool, Academicus and Sociais. He was described as having health trouble throughout his life as well as a predilection for wine.

• The Barolo DOCG designation was established in 1980.

December 29th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• In a letter dated 1711 to Esther Johnson, also known as Stella, Jonathan Swift  mentioned having dinner with Ned Southwell where he drank, “very good Irish wine,”

• Texas was admitted to the Union in 1845.  It is home to the Bell Mountain, Escondido Valley, Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country, Mesilla Valley, Texas Davis Mountain, Texas High Plains, Texas Hill Country and Texoma.

• Wine Road of the Samurai is a documentary about 34 Samurai (who were also known as The Last Samurais) delegation sent by the Japanese government to France at the end of Edo era. They were sent to help solve diplomatic problems between Japan and Europe in 1863.

• The steamship Minister Maybach left the port of Bremen in 1887 with wine bound for New York according to Bonfort’s Wine and Spirit Circular.

• Muscadet-Côtes de Grandlieu was created in 1994.

December 27th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Guillaume Du Fay, the Franco- Flemish Renaissance composer first identified as the Canon of Cambrai in documentation when he received 36 lots of wine for the feast of St. John the Evangelist in 1440.

• The Methuen Treaty, that established the wine trade between Portugal and England was signed in 1703. This gave Britons access to Portuguese wine during war with France.

• Louis Pasteur, French chemist and microbiologist who demonstrated that microorganisms contaminated fermenting beverages thus allowing him to invent the process of "pasteurization" was born in 1822.

• French actor, Gérard Depardieu was born in 1948.  He also owns Chateau de Tigne in Anjou, Loire Valley, France but also owns vineyards in Bordeaux, Languedoc, Algeria, Argentina, Morocco, Spain, Sicily and the United States.

• The Valpolicella DOC designation was established in 1990.  It is made in the Italian region of Verona.

• The Australian Geographical Indications "The Peninsulas” "Far North” "Fleurieu" "Limestone Coast” and"Mount Lofty Ranges" were registered in 1996.

• National Fruitcake Day (Fruitcake is preserved with brandy or fortified wines).

December 26th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Lord George Gordon, head of the Protestant Association and and the focal point of the Anti-Catholic Gordon Riots was born in 1751.  In 1787 he converted to Judaism while undergoing a trial for defaming Marie Antoinette. While imprisoned in Newgate prison, he was supplied with kosher meat and wine.

• Days of Wine and Roses starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick was released in 1962.

• It is the feast day of St. James the Just who was known for drinking no wine nor the eating of meat and wore only fine linen.

• The French have a saying, « À la saint Étienne, pas de vent, pour le vin c'est excellent. » or "To St Stephen, no wind, for wine is excellent. “

• « Dans la nuit qui amène saint Étienne, s'il fait du vent, le vin sera très abondant » or "In the night that brings St. Stephen, if it makes the wind, the wine will be very abundant “.

• Happy Boxing Day!

December 25th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Charlemagne was crowned as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Leo III.  The Emperor celebrated mass where he presented the wine and his Empress the water for the Eucharist.

• In 1213, King John of England ordered 3,000 capons, 1,000 salted eels, 400 hogs, 100 pounds of almonds and 24 casks of wine for his Christmas feast.

• The Eggnog Riot ends at West Point in 1826.  Eggnog was often enriched with sherry, brandy, whisky and rum at the time.

• The Macau Wine Museum opens in 1995.

December 19th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• The Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery  left England in 1606 with colonists who would found Jamestown, Virginia.  Jamestown was underwritten by the Virginia Company that required settlers to provide for their own needs and hence viticulture came to Virginia.

• A note from 1834 in the Register of Debates in Congress indicates that American’s imported $200,000 of wine from France in 1824 and increasing to $920,000 in 1833.

• Albert Abraham Michelson, the first American to win a Nobel Prize in a science was born in 1852.  Born in Poland, he moved to California in 1855.  His childhood home in Murphys Camp is now a tasting room for Hovey Wine.

• In a letter from 1883, Giuseppe del Puente of 5th Ave., New York praises Dr. Angelo Mariani for his fine wine, Vin Mariani. Vin Mariani was made from Bordeaux wine treated with coca leaves.

December 17th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• The first Saturnalia festival was celebrated in 497 BC.

• Jamal ad-Din Rumi, Muslim poet, jurist, scholar, theologian and Sufi mystic died in 1273.  He wrote:

On the seeker’s path, wise men and fools are one.

In His love, brothers and strangers are one.

Go on! Drink the wine of the Beloved!

In that faith, Muslims and pagans are one. -Quatrain 305

• Humphry Davy was born in 1778.  He was a chemist known for isolating potassium, calcium and strontium among others.  He is also known for experiments with nitrous oxide which he mixed with wine and tried as a hangover cure (his notes said it worked).

• This day in 1794 would have been the 27th day of the month Frimaire under the French Revolutionary Calendar. The day of the month was respresented by the Cork Oak Tree (Liège) and the month by Frost (Frimaire).

• 50 Alsatian Grand Crus were established in 1992.

December 16th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Catherine of Aragon was born in 1485. After the birth of her first child, Henry, Duke of Cornwall was born guns were fired, bells were rung, fires lit and free wine was given to the public.

• George Whitefield, one of the founders of Methodism and the evangelical movement was born in 1714.  He was the son of an inn keeper who was “bred to the wine-trade” at least according to The General Assembly’s Missionary Magazine.

• Barbe Nicole Ponsardin born in 1777, she is the future Veuve Cliquot.

• Birthday of Noël Coward in 1899 who wrote: The air is like a draught of wine. The undertaker cleans his sign, The Hull express goes off the line, When it's raspberry time in Runcorn. in On With the Dance, 'Poor Little Rich Girl’.

December 15th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Emperor Nero who rose to power by poisoning Emperor Claudius’ heir Britannicus  through the water used to cool Britannicus’ wine was born in 37AD. 

• David Teniers the Younger, the Flemish painter was born in 1610.  He is know for the paintings, Festival of the Monkeys, and Smoking and Drinking Monkeys.  In each of these paintings, the  monkeys represent fools in high places.

• Johannes Vermeer, painter of "The Wine Glass, A Lady Drinking and a Gentleman" and "The Girl with the Wineglass" was died in 1675.

• In 1803 Lieutenant De Coetlagon was fined one bottle of wine for annoying Lieutenant Dowlin at mess according to the records of the infantry militia battalions of the County of Southampton.

• Pierre Marie Alexis Millardet who saved the vineyards of France from phylloxera died in 1902.

December 13th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• The future Henri IV was born in Pau, Navarre in 1533.  He is said to have been baptised with a spoon of Jurançon wine and garlic.

• Sir Francis Drake begins his round the world voyage in 1577.  During the trip he stopped in Valaparaiso, Chile where he captured a ship of Chilean wine.

• Giovanni Del-Monico, a Swiss Wine Merchant and his brother Pietro open Delmonico & Brother Café 1827.

• Pierre Marie Alexis Millardet who saved the vineyards of France from phylloxera was born in 1838.

• The Cacc'e mmitte di Lucera DOC was created in 1975.

• The Moscato di Sardegna DOC was created in 1979.

• Portugal's Alto Douro Wine Region was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001.

December 5th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Sir Francis Drake discusses his stop in valperizo (Valparaiso) to re-provision his ship with wine, bread, bacon, etc for a long season in 1578.  

• Prohibition is repealed in 1933.

• In 1985, a bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite Bordeaux that had belonged to Thomas Jefferson sold at Christie’s London for 105,000 British Pounds making it the world’s most expensive wine. (it was probably a fake).

• The Savennières AOC was designated in 1996.

December 4th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Nicholas Breakspear was declared #Pope #AdrianIV in 1154.  His #papacy would end five years later when he #choked on a #fly in his #wine

• U.S. Gen. George Washington held a dinner to bid farewell to his officers in 1783.  He toasted them with the words,  "[w]ith a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable." As he later asked to take each one of his officers by the hand for a personal word.

• California's McDowell Valley AVA was designated in 1981.

• California's Santa Cruz Mountains AVA was designated in 1981.

• California's Sonoma Valley AVA was designated in 1981.

• Falcon Crest, an American primetime television soap opera about an American winemaking family debuted 1981.

• Happy Cabernet Franc Day!

December 1st - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Sir Francis Walsingham was knighted in 1577.  Personal Secretary and Spymaster to Queen Elizabeth I, he was married to the Lord Mayor of London’s daughter Mary who was the widow of a wine merchant.

• A Report to the Superintendent of the Census for December 1, 1852 includes a history of viticulture from colonial days to the mid-19th century.

• Oregon's Willamette Valley AVA was designated in 1983.

• Spain’s Ribera del Duero DO was established in 1992.

• It is the feast day of St. Airy of Verdun.  As Bishop of Verdun, he received a visit from Childebert II and a feast was held.  The King’s warriors drank so much that they were in danger of running out of wine.  St. Airy had the last barrel brought out and prayed over it and the wine flowed continuously and was of much better quality.

October 26th - This Date in Wine History

Image courtesy of De Bortoli Wines

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• One of the first known serial killers, Gilles de Rais was executed in 1440 in Nantes, Brittany.  Young victims were dressed in expensive clothing, given an extravagant meal and hippocras, a sweetened, spiced wine before being tortured, murdered and dismembered.

• The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure reports from Bonn that the grape harvest of 1775 was so beyond expectation that there would be no empty casks available to make cider on the Moselle.

• Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V was crowned as King of Germany in 1520.  Charles was known for disliking wine, preferring to drink beer instead.

• Arizona's Sonoita AVA was designated in 1984.

• Deen De Bortoli of De Bortoli wines of Australia died in 2003.

October 25th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Geoffrey Chaucer died in 1400.  His work was so popular in England that he was granted a gallon of wine each day for the remainder off his life b Edward III in 1374.

• John Britton, later to be an English antiquarian was apprenticed to a wine merchant, Mr. Mendham in 1785.

• Max Stirner, German philosopher and father of nihilism was born in 1806.  He often met with a group of young philosophers called Die Freien for debates at Hippel’s wine bar in Berlin.

• Chilean football star, Elías Figueroa was born in 1946.  He is owner of Vino’s Don Elías in Chile’s Maipo Valley.

October 21st - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence was born in 1449.  He was accused of plotting his brother Edward IV and was executed in the Tower of London by being drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine.

• Horatio Nelson, Lord Admiral of the British Navy and the Hero of Trafalgar died in 1805. His body was placed in cask of brandy, mixed with camphor and myrrh and later transferred to a lead coffin filled with spirits of wine.

• Hermann Müller, a Swiss botanist and oenologist created the Müller-Thurgau varietal in 1882 was born in 1850.

• Ohio's Grand River Valley AVA was designated in 1983.

• New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania Lake Erie AVA was designated in 1983.

• California's Chalk Hill, Knights Valley, Russian River Valley AVA were designated in 1983.

• Verbicaro DOC was created in 1995.

• Wine for the Confused, a movie by John Cleese was released in 2004.