June 7th - This Date in Wine History

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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 968, Liudprand of Cremona in reporting to his King, Berengar II of Lombard, has dinner with Nikephoros, the Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) complains that the dinner was “foul and disgusting washed down with oil after the fashion of drankards and moistened also with an exceedingly bad fish liquor”  He ends up insulting the Emperor.
  • Friedrich Hölderlin, German lyric poet died in 1843. He is known for the poem, “Brod und Wein”.
  • The Three Emperor’s Dinner takes place in 1867.  The Banquet hosted at Cafe Anglais in Paris was attended by Wilhelm I of Prussia and  Tsar Alexander II, Tsarevich Alexander (later Tsar Alexander III) of Russia and consisted of 16 courses and 8 wines.  Including an 1846 Chambertin. and Roederer Champagne frappé.
  • Carrie Nation began her assault on any place selling liquor in Dobson’s Saloon in Kiowa, Kansas in 1900 (Which I doubt had any wine but still an assault on one is an assault on all).
  • Dorothy Parker, who once memorable said, "Three be the things I shall never attain: envy, content and sufficient champagne" died in 1967.