January 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.

• Pope Paschal II died in 1118.  During his reign he appointed a Bishop to oversee the territories of Greenland and Vinland (Newfoundland)

• Jefferson Davis resigned from the United States Senate.  A step before becoming the President of the Confederacy.  He was a participant in the  West Point Eggnog riot.  He escaped punishment.

• Esther Lachmann, known as La Païva died in 1884. A courtesan, she had a bathroom at her Hôtel de la Païva, that had three taps, one for water, milk and champagne for bathing.

• Thomas Munson, the American horticulturist who's work with grape rootstock led to phylloxera-resistant stocks died in 1913

• It is the feast day of St. Agnes of Rome.  She is the patron saint of crops and gardeners as well as Girl Scouts.

• Happy Babinden!  This Russian, Bulgarian and Serbian holiday celebrates midwifery and includes Young Mother’s Feast which includes grilled chicken and wine.

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!

November 30th - 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.

• Pope Pius VIII was died in the Rome in 1830.  As Pontiff, Pius removed the laws that forbade selling wine in taverns except when served with meals.

• Winston Churchill, known for enjoying a glass of hock for breakfast was born in 1874.  He is also known to have said,  “Champagne should be cold, dry and free”? 

• Oscar Wilde dies in Paris in 1900. He is famously quoted as saying while sipping champagne, "And now, I am dying beyond my means.”

• California's Wild Horse Valley AVA was designated in 1988.

• Oregon's Dundee Hills AVA was designated 2004.

September 8th - 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.

• Pedro Julião was elected Pope John XXI in 1276.  During his 8 month papacy, he reversed the rules that limited the food and wine available to Cardinals as they deliberated during conclaves.
• The Chianti Classico DO designation was established in 1967.
• The Niagara Escarpment AVA was designated in 2005.
• It is the feast of Our Lady of the Grape Harvest in Beaujolais France.  The best place to celebrate it is at Notre-Dame-aux-Raisins.
• Happy California Wine Month!
• The French have a saying, “À la Nativité commence la maturité (du raisin)“ or “At the Nativity begins the maturity of the grapes.”

September 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.

• Nicholas Breakspear known as #Pope #AdrianIV died in 1159  when he #choked on a #fly in his #wine
• Louis François Joseph de Bourbon later Prince de Conti was born in 1734. He inherited the Romanée- Conti vineyard from his father and owned it until the National Convention stripped him of his property in 1793.
• The Dolcetto d'Acqui DOC, Dolcetto d'Ovada DOC and the Freisa d'Asti DOC were created in 1972.  These wine regions are all located in Italy’s Piedmont region.  Also in 1972 the Monica di Sardegna DOC was created.
• Happy California Wine Month!
• The French have a saying, “En septembre, la bruine, est toujours bonne à la vigne” or loosely, “September drizzles are always good to the vineyard.”

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.

July 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.

• Samuel Pepys reports in his diary that in 1663 he met with Captain George Cocke at his home and drank some of the Malago Sack (Malaga Sherry) which was purchased for his wife Anna Marie Cocke to improve her health, “who is, he fears, a little consumptive, and her beauty begins to want its colour”.
• The HMS Pearl under the command of Captain Ballard took the Spanish xebecs Santa Christo, Veloce Commo Penser and an additional 6 Spanish settees which were laden with wine, oil, rice and barilla in 1800.
• Pope Leo XIII, a proponent of Vin Mariani, a wine made with coca leaves, died in 1903.
• The Cortese dell'Alto Monferrato DOC was created in 1979. The wine is made from Cortese grapes in the Piedmont region of Italy.