May 18th - 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.

• Omar Khayyam, the Persian poet and polymath was born in 1048.  The is responsible for the verse:

“A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, 
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou 
Beside me singing in the Wilderness— 
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow! ”

— Omar Khayyám, The Rubaiyat

• The marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II of England in 1152 brought good cheap Bordeaux wine to the people of England.
• Louis Bignon, French chef and agriculturist, and Legion of Honour recipient died in 1906.  He was known for the high quality of wine in his restaurant as well as investing in research on the phylloxera.
• The Minnesota Dairy and Food Department reports that Ole Olson plead guilty to selling Blackberry Brandy that had been adulterated with coal-tar dye in 1908.  He was fined $40.
• The French have a saying, « Soleil à la Saint-Éric promet du vin plein les barriques. » or, “Sun at St. Eric’s day promises barrels full of wine.”

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.

January 13th - 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.

• Cavalier poet, Edmund Spenser, died in 1599.  He wrote:

Poure out the wine without restraint or stay,
Poure not by cups, but by the belly full,
Poure out to all that wull,
And sprinkle all the postes and wals with wine,

- Epithalamion

• Jan Brueghel the Elder died in 1625.  He is the Dutch painter of One of, “The Senses of Hearing, Touch and Taste” show a huge feast with an assortment of wine cups. 
• Patent #37,424 was issued to A. Myers of Springfield, OH for Improved Sorghum Wine in 1863.
• The Chablis AOC was designated in 1938
• The French have a saying, « À la Saint-Hilaire, le vin gèle dans le verre. » which translates to, “On Saint Hillary’s Day, the wine freezes in the glass. "

June 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.

• John Gay, English poet and dramatist most known for The Beggar’s Opera was born in 1685.  He also wrote the poem, Wine as an homage.
• Spain's Tierra de León DO was created in 2005.   Red wines are produced with Prieto Picudo and Mencía although Garnacha and Tempranillo are allowed as well.  White wines are produced with Albarin blanco, Godello although Malvasia and Palomino are allowed.
• Spain's Valles de Benavente DO was created in 2005.  Red wines are produced with Tempranillo, Prieto Picudo and Mencía although Garnacha and Cabernet Sauvignon are allowed as well.  White wines are produced with Verdejo and Malvasia.
• It is the feast day of St. Theobald of Provins.  He is the patron saint of farmers, winegrowers and charcoal makers.

June 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 Gentlemen’s Magazine of 1803 describes the Duke of Bedford’s wedding to Lady Georgiana Gordon including a description of the wedding favors (white and silver) and wine and cake at the reception.
• In a letter dated June 23, 1808, Martha Jefferson Randolph complaining about amount of wine available in the wine cellar and that Monticello had exhausted its supply of Madeira
• Russian poet Anna Akhmatova was born in 1889.  She wrote:

A land not mine, still
forever memorable,
the waters of its ocean
chill and fresh.

Sand on the bottom whiter than chalk,
and the air drunk, like wine,
late sun lays bare
the rosy limbs of the pinetrees.

Sunset in the ethereal waves:
I cannot tell if the day
is ending, or the world, or if
the secret of secrets is inside me again.

“”
A land not mine, 1964