Fascinating Wine Facts

When picking grapes the skins should be rich and full of flavour. You know the grapes are ripe when the seeds have lost any trace of bitterness and have a nutty richness.

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.”

Red wines are red because fermentation extracts colour from the grape skins.

When Tutankhamen’s tomb was opened in 1922, the wine jars buried with him were labelled with the year, the name of the winemaker, and comments such as “very good wine.” The labels were so specific that they could actually meet modern wine label laws of several countries.

A very low-yielding vineyard that produces 2 tons per acre makes about 1,440 bottles, or 120 cases.

One bottle of wine contains between 600 and 800 grapes.

Plato argued that the minimum drinking age should be 18, and then wine in moderation may be tasted until 31. “When a man reaches 40”, Plato said “he may drink as much as he wants to cure the crabbedness of old age.”

Australia has 65 different wine regions – Chardonnay and Shiraz are grown in every one of them.

There are about 400 species of oak, though only about 20 are used in making oak barrels. Of the trees that are used, only 5% is suitable for making high grade wine barrels. The average age of a French oak tree harvested for use in wine barrels is between 80 and 120 years!

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