September 16th - 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.

  • Philip III of Navarre died in 1343.  He fell ill after having been injured by an arrow.  Alfonso XI’s doctors told him to change his diet, but his own doctor told him to keep eating meat and drinking wine.

  • A cedulla signed by Phillip II of Spain in 1586 forbade the sale of any wine in Panama except that imported from Spain. (Apparently, the Peruvians were making some awesome stuff!)

  • J.L.W. Thudichum and August Dupré experimented with Ploussard (Poulsard) and Enfariné harvested today in 1863, as reported in A Treatise on the origin, nature and varieties of Wine: being a complete manual of viticulture and oenology.

  • In a letter from the Agricultural Experiment Station, University of California, Berkeley, California dated 1892 provides a preface from F. T. Bioletti for the book, Wine. By G. Grazzi-Soncini It includes, “If this book should be of any use to the wine maker, and especially if it should call the attention of non-wine-dinking people to some of the uses and beauties of wine which they did not suspect, the translator will feel amply repaid for his trouble.”

  • Happy California Wine Month!