Wine has been around for centuries. It’s a complex drink that can take years to perfect. There is history and science inside every bottle.
1) Red Wines are well attributed to positive health benefits. It lowers your chances of having a stroke compared to nondrinkers. For men and women who drink moderately, it lessens their chance of developing Type 2 diabetes by 30%
2) Believe it or not, there are some people that have a fear of wine. It’s called “oenophobia”.
3) How do you hold a wine glass? There is a right and wrong way. Wine glasses should be held by the stem, so that the hand does not raise the temperature of the wine. The stem is for a reason!
4) When at a wine tasting event, it is not frowned upon for spitting wine out. Take a sip of wine and hold it in your mouth for a couple seconds, then either swallow it or spit out. This is an acceptable way to know if it’s a good wine. A good wine will have a lengthy aftertaste.
5) Why do you store wine laying down? If the bottle is standing up, the cork could dry out and dwindle, possibly dropping into the wine.
6) Bottles that have animals on the label are known as “Critter Wine”.
7) Women are more inclined to the effects of wine than men. This is partly because they have less enzymes in the stomach lining that is needed to break down alcohol simply.
8) It’s guilt-free! No fat and no cholesterol! But that does not mean to drink a bottle a day either!
9) The oldest known wine cellar is on the Titanic. When divers went down to the wreckage, surprisingly most of the bottles were still in tact.
10) Ben Franklin was quoted, “Wine makes daily life easy, less hurried, with fewer tension and more tolerance”.
11) So many organic compounds are in wine. This is considered more complex than that of blood serum.
12) To get the same amount of antioxidants you find in wine, you would need to drink 20 glasses of apple juice or seven glasses of orange juice.
13) When pairing wine with food, the richer, heavier food go well with the richer, heavier wines. Usually red wine is served with the red meat. The lighter foods are pair with the light wines. White wine is served with chicken and fish. If you are looking to pair a wine with dessert, go for the sweet wine.
14) “Toasting” started in ancient Rome when the Romans sustained the Greek tradition. They would drop a piece of toasted bread into the wine glass to soften unsavory tastes.
15) “Drinking to one’s health” came from ancient Greece. The host of dinner would take the first sip to assurre his guests the wine was not poisoned.
16) California is the fourth largest producer of wine in the world. The other three are France, Spain, and Italy.
17) The world’s oldest bottle of wine was found near the town of Speyer, Germany. It dates before to A.D. 325 and is on display at the town’s historical museum.
18) Wonder why tasters “swirl” the wine in their glass? They do this to release its powerful aromas. If you notice, most don’t fill the glass more than a third full so when they allow the aromas to collect, they not spill it!
19) If a husband found his wife drinking wine in the early Roman times, he was at liberty to kill her. It was forbidden that women drink wine.
20) Hippocrates (c.460 – c. 370 BC), also known as the ‘father of medicine’, used wine in many of his recorded remedies. He used it for lower fevers and as a general antiseptic. It was a remedy he used often for his ailing patients.
