Interesting Wine Facts-


Here are some things that might interest you about wine:

1 grape cluster = 1 glass
75 grapes = 1 cluster
4 clusters = 1 bottle
40 clusters - 1 vine
1 vine = 10 bottles
1200 clusters = 1 barrel
1 barrel = 60 gallons
30 vines = 1 barrel
400 vines = 1 acre
1 acre = 5 tons
5 tons = 332 cases

There are an estimated 20 million acres planted to grapes worldwide.

Among the world's fruit crops, grapes are raked #1 in terms of the number of acres planted.

There are 10,000 varieties of grapes in existence worldwide today.

The worlds most planted grape varietal is Airen. It occupies over 1 million acres in Central spain where it is made into mediocre white wine and also some fairly good brandy.

Wine is often called the nectar of the gods, but Sangiovese is the ONLY grape named after a god. Sangiovese means "blood of Jove."

The first known reference to a specific vintage was when Roman Historian Pliny the Elder rated 121 B.C. as the vintage "of the highest excellence." He did this 200 years later when he wrote the history of the Roman Empire around 70 A.D.

The Greeks were terrible wine snobs who defined "barbarity" as drinking beer or undiluted wine.

Guests at the 1251 wedding of Alexander the III of scotland drank 25,500 gallons of wine. That's about 135,000 modern bottles whih was just enough to wash down the 1,300 deer, 7,000 hens, 170 boars, 60,000 herrings and 68,500 loaves of bread Alexander's guests delicately consumed.

In the 1600's the managers of Venice's(Italy) huge shipyards built a wine fountain so that their workers could drink as much wine as they wanted during the workday. It spouted red wine.

The bill for the celebration party for the 55 drafters of the US Constitution was for 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 botles of claret, 8 bottles of whiskey, 22 bottles of port, 8 bottles of hard cider, 12 beers and seven bowls of alcohol punch large enough that "ducks could swim in them"

In the 1600's thermometers were filled with brandy instead of mercury.

Dom Perignon(1638-1715), A monk of the Benedictine Abbey(at Hautvillers) was also a cellar master who is generally credited with "inventing" the Champagne making process. The most intersting aspect of this is that he was blind and upon drinking his creation for the first time he declared "I am drinking the stars."

The longest recorded champagne cork flight was 177 ft. and 9 in., this was about 4 ft. from level ground at Woodbury Vineyards in New York State.

In ancient Babylon, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead(fermented honey beverage0 he could drink for a month after the wedding. because their calendar was lunar or moon-based, this period of free mead was called the "honey mont," or what we now call the "honeymoon."

When Mt. Vesuvius buried Pompeii in volcanic lava in 79 A.D. it also buried more than 200 wine bars.

Before thermometers were invented, brewers would dip a thumb or finger into the liquid todetermine the ideal temperature, niether too hot nor too cold, for adding yeast. From this we get the phrase "rule of thumb."

In English pubs drinks are served in pints and quarts. In old England bartenders would advise unruly customers to mind their pints and quarts. Its the origin of "mind your P's and Q's."

Wine has so many organic chemical compounds that it is considered more complex than blood serum.

Grapevines cannot reproduce reliably from seeds. To cultivate a particular variety, grafting(a plant version of cloning) is used.

How big can a bottle get?
The following shows the capacity(liters) followed by the number of standard(750 ml) size bottles contained:

Standard(.75) = 1 bottle
Magnum(1.5) = 2 bottles
Jeroboam(3) = 4 bottles
Rehoboam(4.5) = 6 bottles
Methuselah(6) = 8 bottles
Salamanzar(9) = 12 bottles
Balthazar(12) = 16 bottles
Nebuchadnezzar(15) = 20 bottles

Thomas Jefferson's salary was $25,000 per year- a princely sum back in those days, but his expenses were also great. In 1801 Jefferson spent $6,500 for provisions and groceries, $2,700 for servants(some of whom were liveried), $500 for Lewis's salary, and $3,000 for wine

Thomas Jefferson helped stock the wine cellars of the first five US presidents and was very partial to fine Bordeaux and Madeira.

Cork was developed as a bottle closure in the late 17th century. It was only after this that bottles were lain down for aging, and the bottle shapes slowly changed from short and bulbous to tall and slender.

The California wine industry took off in the 1850s when the gold Rush died and many ruined prospectors decided to plant their land with grapes.

Americans consume more wine on Thanksgiving than any other day of the year.

On average there is at least one commercial winery in every state in the USA, including Hawaii and Alaska.

What is the ideal teperature for serving wine?
Whites: chilled(45-5 degrees F) for a few hours in the refreigerator.
Reds: sligtly cooler than room temperature(about 65 degrees F); younger fruity reds benefit from chilling.
Sparkling wine or Champagne: thoroughly chilled; refrigerate several hours or the night before serving.
Dessert wine: slight chill or room temperature.

Chilling tones down the sweetness of wine. If a red wine becomes too warm, it may lose some of its flavor.