10 Things to Know About Wine
Having a glass of wine with dinner is a treat for some while others prefer pairing a wine with each course of their meal. Still more will pay hundreds, even thousands for one bottle of wine and happily store it for years to save for a special occasion. With all this adulation, I thought it would be fun to round up some fun facts about wine, so I present to you 10 Things to Know About Wine.
More’s the Merrier, Part 1: Grapes are the most planted fruit on the planet.
The Irony of It All: The word Alcohol is derived from the Arabic language (al kohl or alkuhl), which is interesting considering the fact that a large proportion of the Arabic population is forbidden from consuming alcohol for religious reasons.
Double Duty: Although red wine can only be produced from red grapes, white wine can be produced from both red and white grapes.
Necessity is the Mother of Invention: During prohibition, an interesting product called the Grape Brick was sold to thousands of wine-parched households across America. Attached to the brick of dried and pressed winegrape concentrate was a packet of yeast, and the stern warning, “Do not add yeast or fermentation will result.”
Corktastic!: The largest cork tree in the world is known as The Whistler Tree. This tree is located in the Alentejo region of Portugal and averages over 1 ton of raw cork per harvest. Enough to cork 100,000 bottles of wine.
Toast to the Romans: The word “toast,” meaning a wish of good health, started in ancient Rome, where a piece of toasted bread was dropped into wine.
The Magic Number: The average number of grapes it takes to produce a bottle of wine is 600.
More’s the Merrier, Part 2: Over 10,000 varieties of wine grapes exist on earth.
The Color Tells All: White wine gets darker as it ages while red wine gets lighter.
Happy Diving: The wreck of the Titanic, holds the oldest wine cellar in the world and despite the depth and wreckage, the bottles are still intact.
