A Cult of Personality

I’ve come to find a truth with many fellow winemakers I’ve had the privilege of getting to know over the years. We’re all a little quirky in our own creative and weird ways. With well over 7000 wineries now across the country, plus countless others around the world, I should preface the aforementioned thought by saying I’m sure not all winemakers display idiosyncrasies that could be perceived as quirky…but I would bet good money that most do.  Many times I've found those in our profession to be perfectionists and at times rather stubborn in our ways. But, if you really think about it, wine itself can be a little quirky and very individualistic.

While giving tours I often tell others, "To me, wine is a living and breathing thing. It’s very much like a person, always changing and evolving until it turns into what hopefully is a refined and enjoyable final product." Throughout the wine making process, I also find that many times wines have a “mind” of their own. A good example may be a wine that is stubborn and refuses to go through a filter pad in a timely manner.  Or, other times when stopping at a certain sweetness level, and the wine continues to ferment even though I’ve tried everything in the book to cause it to stop.

Interesting Wine Facts:
Over the years, we (my wife Barb especially) have collected interesting and yes, quirky, facts about wine. We both love trivia and interesting facts about, well…just about anything. I’ve filled my brain with so much useless and trivial information over the years; it’s amazing I have any room left up there. However, the journey to get to that point has been enjoyable. So, I thought I would share some of those interesting, quirky and unusual facts we’ve held on to. 

• Did you know that wine has some 200 odor-producing compounds? If you think that is more than you could ever recognize, think again. According to research done by the American Wine Society Journal, a normal person can detect about 10,000 distinct odors and can actually learn to identify close to 1000 of them.

• On average, 1 ton of grapes makes about 60 cases of wine, or 720 bottles. One bottle of wine contains about  3 pounds of grapes.

• Grapes are the only fruit that are capable of producing the proper nutrition for the yeast on its skin and sugar in its juice to ferment naturally.

• Champagne was discovered many centuries ago, long before we had a clear understanding of atmospheric pressure. However, most champagne bottles are under 5 to 8 atmospheres of pressure, and when the cork is popped, it can travel at speeds of 35 to 95 miles per hour.

• The highest price ever paid for a bottle of wine. An imperial…which is a six-litre bottle…of Screaming Eagle Cabernet 1992 technically fetched the highest price ever paid for a bottle of wine. It went for a mere $500,000 during a Napa Valley charity auction in 2000.

• However, perhaps the most interesting story of high priced wine is of The Chateau Margaux 1787. It was authenticated to have at one time been part of the wine collection of Thomas Jefferson. The initial price tag was said to be $500,000 though there was never a chance to confirm that value. From Jefferson’s cellar, it eventually became the possession of wine merchant William Sokolin who brought along this bottle at the Four Seasons Hotel for a Margaux dinner. However, a waiter accidentally shattered the bottle. Sokolin collected $225,000 in insurance money.

• 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.” “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.

• In The Story of Wine, Hugh Johnson notes that, in the whole of the Biblical Old Testament, only the Book of Jonah has no reference to the vine or wine.

• Along those same lines, wine is considered the oldest drink of time, and one of the most quoted legends about the discovery of wine is the story of Jamsheed a semi-mythical Persian king (who may have been Noah). A woman of his harem tried to take her life with fermented grapes, which were thought to be poisonous. Wine was discovered when she found herself rejuvenated and lively

• There is much debate about what lead to the fall of the Roman empire. There were probably many causes, but wine may rank up towards the top. You see, Romans discovered that mixing lead with wine not only helped preserve wine, but also gave it a sweet taste and succulent texture. Chronic lead poisoning has often been cited as one of the causes of the decline of Rome.

• Hippocrates, widely considered the father of medicine, includes wine in almost every one of his recorded remedies. He used it for cooling fevers, as a diuretic, as a general antiseptic, and to help convalescence. In fact, I think Hippocrates was on to something, because in the United States Pharmacopeia, alcohol is actually listed as a medicine.

• Speaking of health, the calories in a 5 ounce glass of wine ranges from about 80 to 100.  Lighter wines tend to have fewer calories than heavier wines.  Some wines are higher in carbohydrates than others due to their residual sugars. Wine is fat free and contains no cholesterol and contains 13 minerals necessary for human life.

These are just a few of the fun and interesting facts we’ve run across during our time in the business. I would encourage you to take a little time, pour a glass of wine and discover your own quirky bits of information.

Until next time,  

Drink Wine…Enjoy Life!