May 26th - This Date in Wine History

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Vincent Voiture

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.

  • Arnaud de Cervole, French mercenary, died in 1366.  During the 100 Years war King Jean le Bon the good granted him a letter of remission for sealing wheat, wine and linens from the inhabitants of Saint Laurent de Cognac.
  • Vincent Voiture, French poet and author was born in 1648.  He was the son of rich wine merchants.
  • The 1888 vintage of Gros Verdot was treated with electric current in for 15 minutes was the best of the treated wines.  This experiment was performed by the California Agricultural Experiment Station in 1891.

February 28th - 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.

  • Wine writer, Andre Simon was born in 1877.
  • Mario Andretti was born in 1940.  He is one of the founders of Andretti Winery in Napa Valley.
  • California's Rockpile AVA was designated in 2002.
  • California's Trinity Lakes AVA was designated in 2005.
  • Laissez les bons temps rouler!  It is Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Carnivale or whatever your culture calls the day before the beginning of lent.

February 27th - 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.

  • It is the feast day of St. Gregory of Narek who’s book of Lamentations contains:

“Look at me, I am unworthy of good, undeserving of favor, incapable of love, drawn in by the strands of sin, wounded in the depth of my inner organs, a broken palm tree, spilled wine, damp wheat, breached mortgage, ripped up verdict, counterfeit seal, deformed image, singed garment, lost goblet, sunken ship, crushed pearl, buried gem, dried up plant, broken beam, rotten wood, mutilated mandrake, collapsed roof, dilapidated altar, uprooted plant, oily filth on the street, milk flowing through ash, a dead man in the battalion of the brave. ”

— St. Gregory of Narek, Lamentations

  • Today in 2006 The Georgian Government offered Jennifer Lopez $500,000 to advertise Georgian wine. The singer/actress declined the offer.

February 26th - 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.

  • Musician Jonathan Cain was born in 1950. He is owner of delaCain Vineyards in Sonoma County.
  • California's Fair Play AVA was designated in 2001.
  • Oregon and Washington's Walla Walla Valley AVA was designated in 2001.

February 24th - 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.

  • Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor was born in 1500. He was known for his preference for beer over wine.
  • Spain's Valdeorras DO was created in 1977.
  • The Rosso Canosa DOC was established in 1979.

February 18th - This Date in Wine History

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George Duke of Clarence

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.

  • George, Duke of Clarence, Brother of Edward the IV and Richard the III is allegedly drowned in a barrel of Madeira in 1478.
  • Jess Jackson, of Kendall-Jackson was born in 1930 .
  • AOC blanquette de Limoux was designated in 1938.
  • The Coteaux du Layon-Chaume AOC was created in 1950.
  • The Coteaux-du-Layon was designated AOC in 1950.
  • The Teroldego Rotaliano DOC was established in 1971.

February 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.

  • In 1662, Samuel Pepys describes a dinner with Sir William Batten, Captain Cocke and Captain Tinker where he drank wine “upon necessity, being ill for want of it, and I find reason to fear that by my too sudden leaving off wine, I do contract many evils upon myself”.
  • California's Chiles Valley AVA was designated in 1999.

February 16th - This Date in Wine History

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Philipp Melanchthon   

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.

  • Philipp Melanchthon was born in 1497.  He was a collaborator of Martin Luther and helped create the early theology of the Lutheran Church, such asthe rejection of the idea of transubstantiation.
  • California's Covelo AVA and Washington's Rattlesnake Hills AVA was designated in 2006.

February 14th - This Date in Wine History

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Valentine's Qorkz

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.

  • Happy Valentine’s Day.  St. Valentine has no reference to wine history, but sweethearts often toast their love with wine or Champagne!  Cheers!
  • New Mexico's Mesilla Valley AVA was designated in 1985.
  • The Côte Roannaise AOC was named in 1994.

February 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.

  • Parentalia, the Roman festival of the ancestors was celebrated by offerings of flower-garlands, wheat, salt, wine-soaked bread and violets.
  • The Challenge of Barletta was fought in Italy of 1503.  The tournament was provoked after Charles de la Motte of France, drunk on the local wine, insulted the Italians.
  • Under a federal law passed in 1862, it was illegal to provide to any alcohol to an Indian under the authority of the Indian Bureau. A fine of $500.00 was charged for each violation.

February 11th - 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.

  • Emperor Claudius’ heir Britannicus is thought to have been poisoned by Nero in AD 55 by poisoning the water used to cool Britannicus’ wine.  The water had been previously tasted and found safe.
  • The term Eiswin was coined on this day in 1830 to describe the wines of the 1829 harvest in Bingen-Dromersheim. 
  • Seyssel AOC was named in 1942.

February 8th - This Date in Wine History

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Petit Gamay by Viala and Vermorel

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 Morgon AOC and the Saint-Amour AOC were created in 1946.
  • The Bianco di Custoza DOC and he Colli Lanuvini DOC were created in 1971.
  • The Salaparuta DOC was established in 2006.

February 3rd - 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.

  • In 1468 Johannes Gutenberg died. He invented the method of printing from moveable type. One of the important innovations in his method was a new press, similar to the screw presses used in winemaking.
  • Samuel Pepys reports in his diary that he went out with this cousin Roger to Priors, a Rhenish wine-house and had a “pint or two of wine and a dish of anchovies in1660.
  • The father of Washington State wines, Dr. Walter J. Clore died this day in 2003.

February 2nd - 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.

  • "Wein, Weib und Gesang" ("Wine, Women and Song"), Op.333 by Johann Strauss II was performed for the first time in 1869.
  • In 1659, Jan van Riebeeck, the founder of Cape Town, produced the first known wine in South Africa.
  • Spain's Méntrida DO and Ribeiro DO was created in 1976.
  • New Mexico's Middle Rio Grande Valley AVA was designated in 1988.

February 1st - 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.

  •  "He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored" The Battle Hymn of the Republic is first published in 1862.
  • In 1888, New York City Excise Board Commissioner revoked licenses for individuals with licenses to sell beer, ale and wine for selling “spirituous liquors”.

January 28th - This Date in Wine History

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The Bal des Ardents from Froissart's Chronicles

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.

  • Charles VI of France almost dies during the Bal des Ardents in 1393.  During the celebration the King and five other nobles performed a charivari dance dressed as wild animals.  They were set ablaze accidentally by the King’s brother, the Duke of Orleans.  The only other noble to survive (besides the King) jumped into a vat of wine to save himself.
  • English writer and critic, George Saintsbury, author of Notes on a Cellar-Book died in 1933.
  • The Rossese di Dolceacqua DOC was created in 1972.
  • California's Napa Valley AVA was designated in 1981.

January 6th - This Date in Wine History

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Swan Stamp

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.

  • New Mexico, which has been producing wine since 1629, was admitted to the Union in 1912. 
  • The Australian Geographical Indication "Coonawarra" was registered in 2003.  The word Coonawarra comes from the aboriginal word for swan.

December 11th - This Date in Wine History

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Ogodei Khan

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.

  • South African chemist and viticulturist, Abraham Izak Perold died in 1941.
  • The Mongols begin to retreat in 1241 because Ogodei, son of Ghengis Khan died of alcohol poisoning.

November 15th - This Date in Wine History

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Map of the San Ysidro District viticultural area by Gretchen Miller Neuman for Qorkz.

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 Campidano di Terralba DOC was created in 1975

  • California's Mt. Harlan AVA and San Ysidro District AVA were designated in 1990

  • Spain's Valle de la Orotava DO was established in 1995