little known facts -
- Dom Perignon (1638-1715), the Benedictine Abbey (at Hautvillers) cellar master who is generally credited with "inventing" the Champagne making process, was blind.
- Thomas Jefferson helped stock the wine cellars of the first five U.S. presidents and was very partial to fine Bordeaux and Madeira.
- In King Tut’s Egypt (around 1300 BC), the commoners drank beer and the upper class drank wine.
- When Leif Ericsson landed in North America in A.D. 1001, he was so impressed by the proliferation of grapevines that he named it Vinland.
- When Mount Vesuvius buried Pompeii in volcanic lava in A.D. 79, it also buried more than 200 wine bars.
- The average age of a French oak tree harvested for use in wine barrels is 170 years!
- American wine drinkers consume more wine on Thanksgiving than any other day of the year.
- As early as 4000 BC, the Egyptians were the first people to use corks as stoppers.
- There is at least one commercial winery in every state of the United States, including Hawaii and Alaska!
- The Puritans loaded more beer than water onto the Mayflower.
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a collection of quotes -
- Wine improves with age. The older I get, the better I like it. ~Anonymous
- Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance. ~Benjamin Franklin
- What contemptible scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch? ~W. C. Fields
- If a life of wine, women and song becomes too much, give up the singing. ~Anonymous
- I cook with wine. Sometimes I even add it to the food. ~ Leslie Duncan
- A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou. - Omar Khayyam
- Men are like wine - some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.
Pope John XXIII
- Wine was born, not invented … like an old friend, it continues to surprise us in new and unexpected ways. Dr. Salvatore P. Lucia, quoted in Bottled Wisdom,
- Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough, A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness – And Wilderness is Paradise enow. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
- Elmer Fudd - Sommelier. I would wecommend a Wioja, uh, I mean, a wich wed wine - DWAT!! I'll bring you some non-white wine with your woast weg of wamb. Rich Tennan
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