September 28th - This Date in Wine History

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Prosper_Mérimée.jpg

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.

  • Theodore de Mayerne, a Swiss physician who cared for Henri IV of France, James I, Charles I and Charles II of England was born in 1573.  He was said to have died in1655 from an excess of drinking of bad wine.

  • French Romantic writer, Prosper Mérimée was born in 1803.  In  a story La Chamber bleu, written for Empress Eugenie, two lovers in a hotel room find a stream of blood coming under the door of their room.  They later discover it was Port wine.

  • Louis Pasteur, who discovered pasteurization, the nature of tartaric acid in wine making & germ theory died today in 1895.

  • Jean "Johnny" Hugel, Alsatian wine producer was born in 1924.

  • Happy California Wine Month!