“Wine, the most delightful of drinks, whether we owe it to Noah, who planted the vine, or to Bacchus, who pressed juice from the grape, goes back to the childhood of the world. ~Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, The physiology of taste”
It has been a while since I have been able to post. I moved and that took a lot of time (and stress). Embarking on a new business venture is taking time also.
In the meantime, here are a few fun wine myths and facts:
1. Persian mythology states that a princess who lost favor with her father the king, decided to ingest poison in the form of spoiled grapes from a jar. Instead of dying, she became intoxicated and passed out. Upon awakening, she found her stresses gone, her behavior changed for the better and, apparently gained the king’s approval once again. She told her father of her discovery and the king then ordered the deliberate production of these “spoiled” grapes. Well, that’s one version of the story. Most likely, wine’s discovery; like so many other discoveries, was by accident. What we do know is that wine cultivation most likely started in Mesopotamia, near what is now Iran.
2. The juice and flesh of both red and white wine grapes is colorless. The reason red wine is red (or rosé is pink) has to do with the juice’s contact with the red grape skins. Basically, the longer the contact, the darker the color of the wine. However, there are some grapes with red flesh, these are called teinturier (french term for dye or stain) grapes, Alicante Bouschet is one of these few types of grapes.
3. How many grapes in a bottle of wine? There are about 600-800 grapes in a bottle of wine. A barrel of wine contains approximately 740 pounds of grapes.
4. One of my favorites: Sparkling wine and Champagne is thought to have about 44 million bubbles in a bottle! Now to really geek out … The bubbles in sparkling wines are dissolved CO2 gas. When the bottle of bubbly is opened, the CO2 is less soluble & in order to be released needs a “seed” to help it come out of the solution. Any imperfection in the glass becomes the “seed” and will cause these bubbles to form. So, basically, it’s the imperfections in your glass that cause those bubbles you see! You can find more detail here: http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/newton/askasci/1993/chem/CHEM040.HTM
5. A Foudre is a very large oak barrel used to age wine. The foudre size may vary, but it is significantly larger than the oak barrels normally used in Bordeaux or Bungundy.
And one more…
A Coup de Foudre has both a literal and figurative meaning. Literally it means “A bolt of lightening.” Figuratively, it means “Love at first sight.” (I threw this expression in because I like the idea of ‘love at first sight.’ =)
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This was such a great read! I’m one of those people who appreciates fun facts about anything. Thank you for this great little read!