February 4th - 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.

  • Samuel Pepys reports going to the Nag’s Head Tavern with several old acquaintances and drank a bottle of sack (Sherry) with them in 1664.  The term “sack” comes from the Spanish “saca” which means extraction from a Solera.

  • Carl Michael Bellman, a Swedish composer, musician, poet, and songwriter was born in 1740.  He is best known for Freedman’s songs and Freedman’s epistles which included themes of pleasure, drunkenness and sex.

  • The Alsace - Klevener of Heiligenstein AOC was created in 1997 Rose of Savignin is a permitted grape for this region.

  • It is the feast day of St. John de Britto, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary to India who evangelized by adopting the dress and diet of the the people by abstaining from all  meat products and wine.