May 18th - 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.

  • Omar Khayyam, the Persian poet and polymath was born in 1048.  The is responsible for the verse: 
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
 A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou,
Beside me singing in the Wilderness,
 And oh, Wilderness is Paradise enow
  • The marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II of England in 1152 brought good cheap Bordeaux wine to the people of England.
  • The Minnesota Dairy and Food Department reports that Ole Olson plead guilty to selling Blackberry Brandy that had been adulterated with coal-tar dye in 1908.  He was fined $40.