March 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.

• Cagnina di Romagna was made a DOC in 1988

• Pagadebit di Romagna DOC was created in 1988

• Traditional date for Bacchanalia, celebrating Bacchus, God of Wine

• Date for the Liber Pater, which replaced the Bacchanalia, celebrated god of Italian fertility, wine and services

• Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!  While not a holiday traditionally associated with wine, if you want a wine with green highlights may we suggest a cold climate Sauvignon Blanc or Vinho Verde (which really translates as Green Wine).

• Happy Ag Appreciation Week  Remember, without ag, there is  no wine!

• It is the feast day of St. Gertrude of Nivelles, the patron saint of gardeners and travelers.

March 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.

• The Roman Emperor Julian began the military campaign that led to his death when he moved his army from Antioch to the Sasanian Empire This was a very bad idea. He was speared in his abdomen which damaged his liver, peritoneum and intestines.  He was treated with stitches and the irrigation of the would with “dark wine” but he died.

• Lisa Gherardini married Francesco del Gioconda in 1495. She was the daughter of a Chianti vineyard owner and later married Florentine silk merchant.  She was the model for Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting, The Mona Lisa.

• Henry VI of England issued letters of patent to John Cabot for exploration.  The following year he landed in what is now known as Newfoundland in 1497.  He was the first European to to explore the region since the Vikings landed there and called it Vinland.

• Frederick S. Cozzens publisher of Cozzens' Wine Press was born in 1818.

• It is the feast day of Saint Ciarán of Saigir the first saint born in Ireland. Legend has it that he blessed a well that the tasted of wine and honey.

• It is also the feast day of St. Thietmar of Minden (Bavaria).  He requested water from a servant who brought him wine.  After being brought wine several times by the same servant, he eventually followed the servant and watched as the water gathered by the servant transform into wine.

February 20th - 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.

• Andreas Hofer of St. Leonhard in Passeier died in 1810.  He was a Tyrolean Innkeeper, and wine and horse tradesman who was a leader of the Tyrolean Rebellion against Napoleon.  He was eventually captured and executed.

• Paul Kane, Irish-Canadian painter died in 1871.  His family emigrated to Upper Canada where his father operated a wine shop in York (later Toronto).

• Pope Leo the XIII was born in 1878. He appeared in advertisements for Vin Mariani, a wine made with Coca leaves.

• California's Mt. Veeder AVA was designated in 1990.

February 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.

• In 1662, Samuel Pepys describes a dinner with Sir William Batten, Captain Cocke and Captain Tinker where he drank wine “upon necessity, being ill for want of it, and I find reason to fear that by my too sudden leaving off wine, I do contract many evils upon myself”.

• Lola Montez, royal courtesan of Ludwig I of Bavaria, who's antics incited the people to rebellion by breaking a champagne glass over the head of a police officer was born in 1821. Despite her claims of being a Spanish dancer, She was in fact an Irish peasant born Eliza Rosanna Gilbert.

• John Martin, English romantic painter, engraver and illustrator died in 1854.  His most famous work, Belshazzar’s Feast depict’s the feast held by the Babylonians that used the defiled sacred vessels of the Israelites for serving wine.

• California's Chiles Valley AVA was designated in 1999.

January 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.

• Saint Roseline de Villeneuve died in 1329.  Her shrine is now a winery in Provence.

• Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy was born in 1342.  He outlawed the cultivation of the Gamay grape in favor of pinot noir. to improve the quality of Burgundy wines.

• Lola Montez, royal courtesan of Ludwig I of Bavaria, who's antics incited the people to rebellion by breaking a champagne glass over the head of a police officer died in 1861. Despite her claims of being a Spanish dancer, she was in fact an Irish peasant.

• It is the feast day of Saint Sulpice The Pious.  He was buried at a basilica in Navis near a number of vineyards.

November 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.

• Considerations Upon Christian Truths and Christian Duties  includes an examination of the parable of the Vineyard, Matt. 21:33  The volume was written by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Challenor and published in 1773 in Cork, Ireland.

• Ohio's Loramie Creek AVA was designated in 1982

• The DOC named Lambrusco di Reggiano was revoked. The wine becomes known as Colli di Scandiano e di Canossa. Reggiano becomes known as a description for cheese only.

• It was the feast day of Conrad of Constance.  He is represented as a bishop holding a chalice with a spider over it.  Though all spiders were thought to be poisonous, Conrad drank from the chalice out of faith.

September 26th - This Date at 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 Gentleman's and London Magazine: Or Monthly Chronologer of 1754 contains a Description of a Modern Club from Mr. Fitz-Adam, where he complains about the useless ways Gentlemen in London wasted their time with disputing wines and drinking to other’s health, etc.

• Thomas Volney Munson, creator of phylloxera-resistant rootstocks was born in 1843 .

• Arkansas' Arkansas Mountain AVA was designated in 1986.

• Paul Newman of Newman's Own, which includes a Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon died in 2008 in Westport, CT.

• Happy California Wine Month!

August 18th - 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.

• St. Fiacre of Breuil died in 670. He is the patron saint of gardeners.
• The Siege of Málaga ended in 1487.  This was part of the Reconquista of Moorish Spain, specifically the Emirate of Granada.  The Spanish victors brought “legal” wine back to Málaga.
• Pope Alexander VI dies after drinking poisoned wine in 1503. 
• Virginia Dare, the first English child in the New world was born in 1587.  She disappeared with the rest of the Roanoke Island settlers.  There is a winery named in her honor.
• Hacienda de San Lorenzo, the first winery in the Americas was begun in 1597 by Don Lorenzo Garcia in Santa María de las Parras, Coahuila de Zaragoza, Mexico
• The cornerstone for Waddesdon Manor was laid in 1877.  Built by Baron Ferdinand Rothschild it contains a reproduction of the wine cellar at Château Lafite Rothschild and contains more than 15,000 bottles.  The largest private collection of Rothschild wines in the world.
• Bond girl, Carole Bouquet was born in 1957.  She is owner of Sangue d’oro winery in Sicily, Italy.
• California's Anderson Valley and Willow Creek AVAs were designated in 1983.

August 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.

• Eleanor of Aquitaine became Queen of France in 1137.  Her dowry included Aquitaine including the vineyards or Bordeaux, which remained hers through the marriage and afterwards.
• Queen Anne of England, Scotland and Ireland died in 1714.  A political opponent once wrote of a statue of her, “it was fitting she was depicted with her rump to the church, gazing longingly into a wineshop”.
• Colorado was admitted to the union in 1876.  It is home to  the Grand Valley and West Elks viticultural areas.
• Germany's Qualitätswein mit Prädikat (QmP) is renamed Prädikatswein in 2007.
• There is an old French saying “S’il pleut le jour de la Saint-Pierre-ès-Liens, la vinée réduit du tiers,” or approximately “If it rains on the Festival of the Liberation of Saint Peter, the wine will be reduced by a third”.

April 11th - 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 Canning, British statesman and son of a failed Irish wine merchant was born in 1770. 
• Percy Lavon Julian, an American chemist was born in 1899.  A former colleague from Howard University and released letters that Julian had sent him from Vienna which covered subjects such as wine, pretty Viennese women, music and chemical experiments.
• Ivor Spencer-Thomas inventor of “FizzIt” which turned still wine into sparkling was born in 1907
• Thomas Harris, creator of the character Hannibal Lecter best for know for eating  a census taker’s liver with a big Amarone was born in 1940.

April 10th - 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 William Russell who wrote under the pseudonym Æ was born in 1867.  About the Easter Rising  he wrote, 

“And yet my spirit rose in pride
Refashioning in burnished gold
The image of those who died
Or were shut up in penal cell
Here’s to you Pearse, your dream, not mine
And yet the thought- for this you fell
Has turned life’s water into wine.”

— To the memory of some I knew who are dead and loved Ireland - 1917

• The Steuben County Wine Company of Chicago filed for a Trademark in 1905.
• Port Wine Institute was created in 1933.
• Washington's Red Mountain AVA was designated in 2001.

March 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. 

• Cagnina di Romagna was made a DOC in 1988.
• Pagadebit di Romagna DOC was created in 1988.
• Traditional date for Bacchanalia, celebrating Bacchus, God of Wine.
• Date for the Liber Pater, which replaced the Bacchanalia, celebrated god of Italian fertility, wine and services.
• Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!  While not a holiday traditionally associated with wine, if you want a wine with green highlights may we suggest a cold climate Sauvignon Blanc or Vinho Verde (which really translates as Green Wine).
• Happy Ag Appreciation Week  Remember, without ag, there is  no wine!
• It is the feast day of St. Gertrude of Nivelles, the patron saint of gardeners and travelers.

March 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. 

• Lisa Gherardini married Francesco del Gioconda in 1495. She was the daughter of a Chianti vineyard owner and later married Florentine silk merchant.  She was the model for Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting, The Mona Lisa.
• Frederick S. Cozzens publisher of Cozzens' Wine Press was born in 1818.
• It is the feast day of Saint Ciarán of Saigir the first saint born in Ireland. Legend has it that he blessed a well that the tasted of wine and honey.
• It is also the feast day of St. Thietmar of Minden (Bavaria).  He requested water from a servant who brought him wine.  After being brought wine several times by the same servant, he eventually followed the servant and watched as the water gathered by the servant transform into wine.

February 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. 

• In 1662, Samuel Pepys describes a dinner with Sir William Batten, Captain Cocke and Captain Tinker where he drank wine “upon necessity, being ill for want of it, and I find reason to fear that by my too sudden leaving off wine, I do contract many evils upon myself”.
• Lola Montez, a royal courtesan of Ludwig I of Bavaria, who's antics incited the people to rebellion by breaking a champagne glass over the head of a police officer was born in 1821. Despite her claims of being a Spanish dancer, She was, in fact, an Irish peasant born Eliza Rosanna Gilbert.
• John Martin, English romantic painter, engraver and illustrator died in 1854.  His most famous work, Belshazzar’s Feast depict’s the feast held by the Babylonians that used the defiled sacred vessels of the Israelites for serving wine.
• California's Chiles Valley AVA was designated in 1999.

January 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.

• Saint Roseline de Villeneuve died in 1329.  Her shrine is now a winery in Provence.
• Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy was born in 1342.  He outlawed the cultivation of the Gamay grape in favor of pinot noir. to improve the quality of Burgundy wines.
• Lola Montez, royal courtesan of Ludwig I of Bavaria, who's antics incited the people to rebellion by breaking a champagne glass over the head of a police officer died in 1861. Despite her claims of being a Spanish dancer, she was in fact an Irish peasant.
• It is the feast day of Saint Sulpice The Pious.  He was buried at a basilica in Navis near a number of vineyards.

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,”
• 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.

June 2nd - 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.

• Shane O’Neill, Irish King died in 1567.  In the aftermath of the Battle of the Red Sagums, the Earl of Sussex tried to assassinate The O’Neill using poisoned wine.  He survived this attack only to be beheaded by the MacDonnells at Antrim.
• The first recorded import tax in Providence, Rhode Island was issued in 1656 for wine and liquor.
• It is the feast day of Saint Marcellin. In France it is said, “Beau temps à la saint Marcellin, assure le pain et le vin” or “Good weather at Saint Marcellin’s Day, assures bread and wine.”
• Happy English Wine Week!

April 11th - 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 Canning, British statesman and son of a failed Irish wine merchant was born in 1770. 
• Birthday of Thomas Harris, creator of the character Hannibal Lecter best for know for eatinga census taker’s liver with a big Amarone.
• Ivor Spencer-Thomas, the Welsh inventor of “FizzIt” which turned still wine into sparkling was born in 1907.

April 10th - 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 William Russel who wrote under the pseudonym Æ was born in 1867.  About the Easter Risinghe wrote, 

“And yet my spirit rose in pride

Refashioning in burnished gold

The image of those who died

Or were shut up in penal cell

Here’s to you Pearse, your dream, not mine

And yet the thought- for this you fell

Has turned life’s water into wine.”

from To the memory of some I knew who are dead and loved Ireland (1917)

• The Steuben County Wine Company of Chicago filed for a Trademark in 1905.
• Port Wine Institute was created in 1933
• Washington's Red Mountain AVA was designated in 2001

March 5th - 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.

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• Frederick S. Cozzens publisher of Cozzens' Wine Press was born in 1818.  He is also known as a humorist.
• It is the feast day of Saint Ciarán of Saigir the first saint born in Ireland. Legend has it that he blessed a well that the tasted of wine and honey.
• It is also the feast day of St. Thietmar of Minden (Bavaria).  He requested water from a servant who brought him wine.  After being brought wine several times by the same servant, he eventually followed the servant and watched as the water gathered by the servant transform into wine.