April 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.

• For circumnavigating the globe, Sir Francis Drake was knighted in 1581.  During the voyage he sacked the port of Valparaiso and captured a ship of Chilean wine.

• King Frederick II of Denmark and Norway died in 1588.  He was considered a typical Danish king and was a lover of hunting, wine, women and feasting.

• Robert Walpole, The Earl of Orford and Prime Minister of Great Britain becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1721.  He proposed that the tariff on wine and tobacco be replaced by an excise tax.  Revenues had fallen due to smuggling.

• Bonfort’s Wine and Spirit Circular reports that the ship Cibele left the Port of Genoa bound for NYC laden with wine.

• Washington's Yakima Valley AVA was designated in 1983.

October 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.

• Julia Augusti filia, known as Julia the Elder, was born in 39 BC.  She was daughter of Caesar Augustus, but after she was accused of adultery, she was exiled from Rome instead of being executed.  She was sent to the island of Pandateria with no men in sight and was even forbidden to drink wine.

• Danish Prince Vilhelm arrives in Athens in 1863 and ascends the throne as George I, King of the Hellenes.  At the Palace of Tatoi, the king grew his own grapes and made his own wine Chateau Décélie.

• The Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG designation was established in 1979.

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. 

July 10th - 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.

• Camille Pissarro was born in 1830.  He was a Danish-French painter who is known for still life paintings such as Still Life with Apples and Pitcher.
• The Chemical News of 1874 has a report from the Committee on Adulteration who reports that “The man who sells us a blanket got up with a deliquescent salt, like chloride of magnesiums, imperils our health just as decidedly as if he had put  amylic or petroleum products in our wine, or red lead in our chocolate.”
• The Black Hawk left Bremen in 1887 bound for NYC loaded with wine.
• Madiran and Pacherenc of Vic-Bilh are awarded AOC status in 1948.  Both AOCs are for wines produced in the  town of Madiran in Gascony, France. The Madiran wines are made of Tannat and the Pacherenc of Vic-Bilh of Petit Manseng and Corbu.

May 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.

• Anne of Denmark was coronated as Queen of the Scots in 1590.  Her marriage to James VI of later James I of England was fractious due to his drinking and adultery.
• The Pirate, Bartholomew Roberts was born in Wales in 1682.  Impressed into piracy he was elected as Captain six weeks later, after the previous captain was ambushed on the way to the fort in Príncipe to share a glass of wine with the Governor. He is said to be the model for the Dread Pirate Roberts in the Princess Bride.
• California's Merritt Island AVA was designated in 1983.
• California's Northern Sonoma AVA was designated in 1985.
• Lawrence Welk, purveyor of champagne music, died in 1992.
• Happy National Aperifif day! (established by Maison Lillet)

April 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.

• Ælfheah of Canterbury was murdered in 1012 by the Danes because he refused to offer them a ransom for his release and because they were drunk on wine brought from the south.
• Venetian painter, Paolo Veronese, died in 1588.  He is known for several paintings of the wedding at Cana, where Jesus transformed water into wine.
• George Gordon Byron, known as Lord Byron died in 1824. He used a skull found at Newstead Abbey as a wine cup. He wrote the poem Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed from a Skull.
• The Botticino DOC was created in 1968.
• The Cellatica DOC was created in 1968.

April 12th - 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. 

• Joanna of Castile died in 1555.  The daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, she was less devout than her parents who were referred to as “The Catholic Monarchs”.  She was accused of being corrupted by Parisian ‘drunkard’ priests and punished in the style of the Spanish Inquisition.  She was later deemed “insane” so that properly devout (and male) relatives could reign in her stead.  
• Christian IV of Denmark was born in 1577.  During a state visit to England a masque of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba  was put on.  It was described as a drunken fiasco.  Most of the players fell over from drinking too much wine.
• Per Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, Johnson had dinner with Boswell at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in 1776 with Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. Langton, Lord Dunsinan and Sir William Forbes where they discussed the nature of wine and wit, JOHNSON. 'No, Sir: before dinner men meet with great inequality of understanding; and those who are conscious of their inferiority, have the modesty not to talk. When they have drunk wine, every man feels himself happy, and loses that modesty, and grows impudent and vociferous: but he is not improved; he is only not sensible of his defects.' 
• The Economist for this date in 1884 contained an article about the wine crop in the Rhine District of Prussia for 1883. (It was fine.)

April 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. 

• For circumnavigating the globe, Sir Francis Drake was knighted in 1581.  During the voyage he sacked the port of Valparaiso and captured a ship of Chilean wine.
• King Frederick II of Denmark and Norway died in 1588.  He was considered a typical Danish king and was a lover of hunting, wine, women and feasting.
• Washington's Yakima Valley AVA was designated in 1983.

October 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.

• Julia Augusti filia, known as Julia the Elder, was born in 39 BC.  She was daughter of Caesar Augustus, but after she was accused of adultery, she was exiled from Rome instead of being executed.  She was sent to the island of Pandateria with no men in sight and was even forbidden to drink wine.
• Danish Prince Vilhelm arrives in Athens in 1863 and ascends the throne as Geoge I, King of the Hellenes.  At the Palace of Tatoi, the king grew his own grapes and made his own wine Chateau Décélie.
• The Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG designation was established in 1979.

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.

• 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. 

July 10th - 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.

• Camille Pissarro was born in 1830.  He was a Danish-French painter who is known for still life paintings such as Still Life with Apples and Pitcher.
• The Chemical News of 1874 has a report from the Committee on Adulteration who reports that “The man who sells us a blanket got up with a deliquescent salt, like chloride of magnesium, imperils our health just as decidedly as if he had putamylic or petroleum products in our wine, or red lead in our chocolate.”
• Madiran and Pacherenc of Vic-Bilh are awarded AOC status in 1948.  Both AOCs are for wines produced in the town of Madiran in Gascony, France. The Madiran wines are made of Tannat and the Pacherenc of Vic-Bilh of Petit Manseng and Corbu.

May 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.

• Anne of Denmark was coronated as Queen of the Scots in 1590.  Her marriage to James VI of later James I of England was fractious due to his drinking and adultery.
• The Welsh pirate Bartholomew Roberts was born in Wales in 1682.  Impressed into piracy he was elected as Captain six weeks later, after the previous captain was ambushed on the way to the fort in Príncipe to share a glass of wine with the Governor. He is said to be the model for the Dread Pirate Roberts in the Princess Bride.
• California's Merritt Island AVA was designated in 1983.
• California's Northern Sonoma AVA was designated in 1985.

April 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.

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• For circumnavigating the globe, Sir Francis Drake was knighted in 1581.  During the voyage he sacked the port of Valparaiso and captured a ship of Chilean wine.
• King Frederick II of Denmark and Norway died in 1588.  He was considered a typical Danish king and was a lover of hunting, wine, women and feasting.
• Washington's Yakima Valley AVA was designated in 1983.