September 17th - 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.

  • Hildegarde of Binge, German abbess, artist, author, counselor, linguist, naturalist, scientist, philosopher, physician, herbalist, poet, visionary and composer, wrote Causae et Curae which recommended that wine be drunk daily to maintain good health, died in 1179. 

  • Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings, wealthy industrialist, horseman and tycoon was born in 1861.  He is known for hosting an eccentric horsed dinner where all the guests were seated on a horse and ate off of silver trays affixed to the saddles.  Guests also drank 1898 Krug Champagne from rubber tubes to iced bottles in their saddlebags.  The dinner was held at Louis Sherry’s restaurant.

  • Restauranteur and winemaker Joe Bastianich was born in 1968.

  • French winemaker, Didier Dagueneau died in 2008 when he crashed in an ultra light aircraft.  He achieved cult status for his Sauvignon Blanc wines from the Pouilly-Fumé section of the Loire.

  • The Wine Museum in Pleven, Bulgaria opened in 2008.

  • Happy California Wine Month!