January 19th - 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.

• Byzantine Emperor, Michael III was born in 840.  Known as The Drunkard, he was assassinated while sleeping after a drinking bout.

• Jean-Baptiste Troppmann was executed in 1870.  He poisoned his counterfeiting partner with wine and prussic acid.  He later killed the family of his partner-in-crime.

• Alexander Woollcott, drama critic, essayist, playwright, editor, actor, radio personality and member of the Algonquin Round Table was born in 1887.   He starred in the play, “Wine of Choice” at the Guild Theater (now the August Wilson Theater).

• Spain's Monterrei DO was designated in 1996.

November 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.

• Zeno becomes sole Byzantine Emperor in 474 when his son and co-emperor, Leo II dies in 474. Legend holds that he was buried alive after becoming insensible with drink and hist wife Ariadne refused to allow anyone to open his sarcophagus.

• Louis XVIII was born in 1755.  After having spent  decades in exile after the death of his brother, Louis XVI, upon his restoration he promised the people that taxes on tobacco, wine and salt would be abolished.  He did not keep this promise.

• The U.S. Army established Fort Buchanan in 1856.  The fort was created to protect the newly acquired Gadsen Purchase.  Today the land the fort is located on is part of Arizona’s Sonoita viticultural area.

• União Vinícola da Região do Moscatel de Setúbal was created in Portugal in 1933.

July 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.

• Nikephoros I of the Byzantine Empire was killed in 811 at the battle of Pliska.  His skull was turned into a wine cup for his vanquisher. 
• Mary Frith, also known as Moll Cutpurse died in 1659.  She was once required to do penance for her “evil living” at St. Paul’s Cross and she was observed as being very penitent weeping bitterly.  However, it was also reported that she ‘maudlin drunk’ having drunk  most of a bottle of sack (sherry).
• The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal dated 1831 follows the case of a gentleman with smallpox.  He was treated with calamine, bark, wine, brandy, potash, senna and rhubarb.  The patient survived.
• Spain's Navarra DO was created in 1975.

July 23rd - 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 Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros I invaded the Bulgarian capital of Pliska and steals the treasury of Khan Krum.  Eventually, Krum will have his revenge and Nikephoros skull will end up a wine cup for the Khan.
• Peder Severin Kroyer, a Danish painter, who created a painting called “Hip, Hip Hurrah!” showing a toast at a family picnic was born in 1851.
• Robert Parker born in 1947.
• Pennsylvania and Maryland's Cumberland Valley AVA was designated in 1985.
• It is the feast day of St. Phocas who is a patron saint of gardeners,agricultural workers, farm worker and others.  Remember.  No Farmers?  No wine. 

June 9th - 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 968, Liudprand of Cremona in reporting to his King, Berengar II of Lombard, reports that he is sick and can’t understand why no one else at the Emperor’s banquet did not also get sick, “Their drink instead of good wine was brackish water;”
• James Oglethorpe receives a royal charter to establish the colony of Georgia.  One of the justifications for the colony was to be able to produce silk, olive oil and wine.  That didn’t work.
• The Rosso di Montalcino DOC was established in 1983. 
• Spain's Ribera del Júcar DO was created in 2003.
• Alsatian wine producer, Jean Hugel died in 2009.
• The French have a saying, « Pluie à la Sainte-Diane, ni grain au grenier, ni vin au cellier. » or "Rain at Sainte-Diane, no grain in the attic, no wine in the cellar.”
• Happy National Rosé Day!

June 7th - 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 968, Liudprand of Cremona in reporting to his King, Berengar II of Lombard, has dinner with Nikephoros, the Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) complains that the dinner was “foul and disgusting washed down with oil after the fashion of drankards and moistened also with an exceedingly bad fish liquor”  He ends up insulting the Emperor.
• Friedrich Hölderlin, German lyric poet died in 1843. He is known for the poem, “Brod und Wein”.
• The Three Emperor’s Dinner takes place in 1867.  The Banquet hosted at Cafe Anglais in Paris was attended by Wilhelm I of Prussia and  Tsar Alexander II, Tsarevich Alexander (later Tsar Alexander III) of Russia and consisted of 16 courses and 8 wines.  Including an 1846 Chambertin. and Roederer Champagne frappé.
• Carrie Nation began her assault on any place selling liquor in Dobson’s Saloon in Kiowa, Kansas in 1900 (Which I doubt had any wine but still an assault on one is an assault on all).
• Dorothy Parker, who once memorable said, "Three be the things I shall never attain: envy, content and sufficient champagne" died in 1967.

June 6th - 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 Byzantine emperor, Alexander died in 913 after playing tzykanisterion (Byzantine polo). He was viewed as lazy, lecherous, drunk and malignant.
• Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Valazquez was born in 1599.  He was a Spanish painter known for The Triumph of Bacchus or The Drunks.
• The Alex. D. Shaw & Company received a trademark for Sherry-Wine in 1911.
• The Australian Geographical Indication "Southern Fleurieu" was registered in 2001.
• The Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Colline Teramane DOCG designation was established in 2003.

January 19th - 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.

• Byzantine Emperor, Michael III was born in 840.  Known as The Drunkard, he was assassinated while sleeping after a drinking bout.
• Jean-Baptiste Troppmann was executed in 1870.  He poisoned his counterfeiting partner with wine and prussic acid.  He later killed the family of his partner-in-crime.
• Alexander Woollcott, drama critic, essayist, playwright, editor, actor, radio personality and member of the Algonquin Round Table was born in 1887.   He starred in the play, “Wine of Choice” at the Guild Theater (now the August Wilson Theater).
• Spain's Monterrei was designated in 1996.

November 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.

• Zeno becomes sole Byzantine Emperor in 474 when his son and co-emperor, Leo II dies in 474. Legend holds that he was buried alive after becoming insensible with drink and hist wife Ariadne reefed to allow anyone to open his sarcophagus.
• The U.S. Army established Fort Buchanan in 1856.  The fort was created to protect the newly acquired Gadsen Purchase.  Today the land the fort is located on is part of Arizona’s Sonoita viticultural area.
• União Vinícola da Região do Moscatel de Setúbal was created in Portugal in 1933.

October 31st - 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.

• Christopher Columbus acknowledges a debt of 48 Genoese pounds for wine delivered to him and his father.
• Nikephoros I of the Byzantine Empire was crowned in 802.  His reign didn’t last long.  He was killed in 811 and his skull became his conqueror’s wine cup.
• Cosimo III de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany died in 1723.  Among his accomplishments was the establishment of the Chianti wine region.

July 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.

• Nikephoros I of the Byzantine Empire was killed in 811 at the battle of Pliska.  His skull was turned into a wine cup for his vanquisher. 
• Mary Frith, also known as Moll Cutpurse died in 1659.  She was once required to do penance for her “evil living” at St. Paul’s Cross and she was observed as being very penitent weeping bitterly.  However, it was also reported that she ‘maudlin drunk’ having drunkmost of a bottle of sack (sherry).
• Spain's Navarra DO was created in 1975.

June 6th - 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 Byzantine emperor, Alexander died in 913 after playing tzykanisterion (Byzantine polo). He was viewed as lazy, lecherous, drunk and malignant.
• The Alex. D. Shaw & Company received a trademark for Sherry-Wine in 1911.
• The Australian Geographical Indication "Southern Fleurieu" was registered in 2001.
• The Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Colline Teramane DOCG designation was established in 2003.

April 13th - 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.

• Krum, Khan of Bulgaria died in 814.  He used the skull of the Byzantine Emperor as a wine cup.
• Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father and wine lover was born in Virgina in 1743.
•  Baron Philippe de Rothschild was born in 1902.
• "Red Red Wine" written and performed by Neil Diamond was released in 1968 it was and later covered by UB40.

January 19th - This Date in Wine History

Michael III being entombed at the Church of the Holy Apostles.

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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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• Byzantine Emperor, Michael III was born in 840.  Known as The Drunkard, he was assassinated while sleeping after a bender.
• Spain's Monterrei DO was designated in 1996.

October 31st - This Date in Wine History

View fullsize

Khan Krum of Bulgaria getting ready to drink wine from the skull of Nikephoros I

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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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• Nikephoros I of the Byzantine Empire was crowned in 802.  His reign didn’t last long.  He was killed in 811 and his skull became his conqueror’s wine cup.
• Christopher Columbus acknowledges a debt of 48 Genoese pounds for wine delivered to him and his father.
• Cosimo III de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany died in 1723.  Among his accomplishments was the establishment of the Chianti wine region.