50 facts about wine

Facts about wine

Here is a run down of 50 facts about wine which is sure to prove useful to any connoisseurs out there. We have researched far and wide to bring a you this huge wine fact list;

So in no particular order;

  1. The smell of young wine is called an “aroma” while a more mature wine offers a more subtle “bouquet.”
  2. In ancient Greece, a dinner host would take the first sip of wine to assure guests the wine was not poisoned, hence the phrase “drinking to one’s health.”
  3. “Toasting” started in ancient Rome when the Romans continued the Greek tradition but started dropping a piece of toasted bread into each wine glass to temper undesirable tastes or excessive acidity.
  4. A “cork-tease” is someone who constantly talks about the wine he or she will open but never does.
  5. Since wine tasting is essentially wine smelling, women tend to be better wine testers because women, particularly of reproductive ages, have a better sense of smell than men.
  6. Red wines are red because fermentation extracts colour from the grape skins.
  7. White wines are not fermented with the skins present.
  8. Early Roman women were forbidden to drink wine, and a husband who found his wife drinking was at liberty to kill her. Divorce on the same grounds was last recorded in Rome in 194 B.C.
  9. The world’s oldest bottle of wine dates back to A.D. 325 and was found near the town of Speyer, Germany, inside one of two Roman sarcophaguses.
  10. There is increasing scientific evidence that moderate, regular wine drinking can reduce the risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and gum disease.
  11. While wine offers certain medical benefits, it may slightly increase the risk of contracting certain kinds of cancer of the digestive tract, particularly the oesophagus. There is also a slightly increased risk of breast cancer.
  12. Red wine, typically more than white wine, has antioxidant properties and contains resveratrol, which seems to be important in the cardio-protective effects of wine.
  13. California is the fourth-largest wine producer in the world, after France, Italy, and Spain.
  1. Swirling oxygenates wine and helps release its aromas
  2. Most wine is served in a glass that has a gently curved rim at the top to help contain the aromas in the glass. The thinner the glass and the finer the rim, the better. A flaring, trumpet-shaped class dissipates the aromas.
  3. When tasting wine, hold the wine in the mouth for a moment or two and then either swallow it or, preferably, spit it out, usually into a spittoon. A really good wine will have a long aftertaste, while an inferior wine will have a short aftertaste.
  4. Wine grapes rank number one among the world’s fruit crops in terms of acres planted.
  5. The worst place to store wine is usually in the kitchen because it is typically too warm to store wine safely. Refrigerators are not satisfactory for storing wine either. Even at their warmest setting, they’re too cold.
  6. Richer, heavier foods usually go well with richer, heavier wines; lighter foods demand light wines. Additionally, red wine typically is served with red meat, white wine with white meat and fish, and sweet wine with desserts. We have a recipe for white wine sauce on Kitchen Geekery you might enjoy reading too.
  7. It is traditional to first serve lighter wines and then move to heavier wines throughout a meal. Additionally, white wine should be served before red, younger wine before older, and dry wine before sweet.
  8. Serving temperatures should be lower for white (45-50 degrees Fahrenheit) than for red wines (50-60 degrees Fahrenheit).
  9. The prohibitionists, or the “dry’s,” in the early twentieth century fought to remove any mention of wine from school and college texts, including Greek and Roman literature.
  10. The vintage year isn’t necessarily the year wine is bottled, because some wines may not be bottled the same year the grapes are picked. Typically, a vintage wine is a product of a single year’s harvest. A non-vintage wine is a blend of wines from two or more years.
  11. Wine glasses should always be held by the stem not the bowl – because the heat of your hand will raise the temperature of the wine.
  12. Champagne, one of the world’s greatest sparkling wines, is popularly but erroneously thought to have been invented by the Benedictine monk Dom Pierre Perignon (1638-1715). Although he did not invent or discover champagne, he founded many principles and processes in its production that are still in use today. And he purportedly declared upon drinking the bubbly beverage, “I am drinking stars.”

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