“The most philosophical person on the earth is the person with a glass of wine!” – AB.
Wine is the sole thing that has not lost its significance in the lives of humankind since it’s emergence. All throughout the ages wine is the most precious and virtuous part of life for humans.
Some experts also believe that Dionysus is the god of wine and winemaking from the ancient Greek regional myths. And hence it is believed that wine is a god made element and had its existence from the time of gods.
No other beverage or alcoholic drink has made such a great impact on the mankind as the wine did. Various religious, scientific and philosophical ideas were shared and the acceptance of other ideas between different groups initiated with the trade of wine.
“Wine is perhaps the closest thing the planet has to the elixir of life.”
Wine from the history – Wine Facts
The most historic winery to be discovered uptill now is the “Armenia-1” cave in Vayots Dzor, America. This winery is aged to 4100 BC and had an evidence of wine jars, press, fermentation vats, and cups. The Bible also consists frequent mentions of wine from Noah and the grape wines to Jesus. The Catholic Church holds a very vital place for wines as the substitute of the blood of Christ.
1. The age of drinking wine is being determined ages ago by the Greek Philosopher Plato. He wrote that the minimum age to consume the wine should be 18. After 18 years of age a person should drink moderately upto the age of 31. And later drink as much as you can to fight the crabbedness of the old age.
2. The women in the early times of the ancient Rome were forbidden to consume wine. And if they were caught consuming wine the penalty was death. The last incident recorded of this was about 194 BC.
Moreover, the husbands were granted the right to kill their wives if their wife is found consuming the wine.
3. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine used the wine as the vital ingredient in each and every medicine or remedy he recorded.
4 In 1000 AD, when the first encountered America they named it Vinland (wine land). This was because of a large amount of grape vines that they discovered there.
5. The Roman emperor decided to use a little bit of lead and mix it into the wine as the presence of lead in the wine gave a nice sweet taste. It also enhanced the texture of the wine and hence the people of Rome thought it as a great idea to use lead in wine.
But the historians often get into the argument that this lead was one of the vital reason for the fall of the Roman Empire as the chronic lead poisoning may lead to death.
6. Speaking of additives,t the ancient mankind had practiced the seasoning of the wine with various other ingredients and elements such as onion, garlic as well as the fish sauce.
7. Cistercian and Benedictine monks progressed wine-making art at a large scale during the middle ages. They did all possible experiments and procedure to understand and study the wine-making and to improve it.
They even tasted the soil to understand the reason of various different tastes of wine prepared from different grapes. And still, this practice is followed by various modern winemakers in their vineyards to produce the best wine for us.
“The mystic secrecy of wine is that it reveals all your secrets.” – AB.
Sparkling Wine Facts
#1. Wine and the sex life:
This the most sparkling and amazing fact about wine. Drinking wine daily or regularly can improve your sex life. According to the survey held in Australia and even Italian study believes that the woman who drinks 2 cups of wine each day tends to have more pleasure during sex more than the woman who does not consume wine at all.
Wine boosts up your sexual hormones and provides a pleasurable sex life to you. Wine inclusion at the time of sex can raise the appeal and romance in the humans.
#2. Monks, the maker of Wines:
The world’s most famous Champagnes Dom Perignon was named after Dom Pierre Perignon (1638-1715), a monk. He experimented various new methods and procedures of making wine and was the advocate of organic winemaking, successful in improving the procedure of winemaking and winery. His methods and procedures are still in use.
The Benedictines and the Cistercians innovated and preserved the art of making wine during the Middle Ages.
#3. Wines do not make you fat:
The beer belly is what you get when you consume a lot of beer each day. Whereas the wine has no such aesthetic effects on you. In fact, a recent study shows that the alcohol’s calories are not metabolized as that of the carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Hence a glass of wine in your diet would help you to lose weight instead of gaining it.
#4. Wine names and their location of origin:
Almost all wine names contain the name of the place of their origin. Wines are either named after their birthplace or consists the name of the place on the label of the wine or even in the wine names. The European concept of naming the wine after the place of their origin is guided by the Terroir principle. And it is believed that the more accurate name a wine can have is the name that is kept on the basis of the geographical origin of that wine.
#5. All Wines are not health beneficial:
Antioxidants such as resveratrol and polyphenol possess anti-cancer properties and cardio-protective effects. And these antioxidants are present in the red wine. As the red wine is being fermented including the grape skin it consists more antioxidants as compared to the white wines. Some studies even show that the white wine has chances to cause cancer in some humans if consumed more than 1 or 2 glasses each day.
“When wine goes in, wisdom comes out.”
Quick Wine Facts
1. Tannin is the substance in wine that tingles the gums. It is achieved from the pips, skin and the stalks of the grapes used to make the wine. It is mostly found only in red wine.
2. The wine bottles should never be kept or stored upright, as the cork of the bottle gets dry and may decrease in size and allow the oxygen to enter the wine bottle and may harm the wine. Hence keep the wine bottle inclining downwards.
3. When the wine was prohibited in The United States, the winemakers generated a concentrated grape juice which was intelligently labeled as ” After mixing the concentration in water, please consume it within 20 days as it turns into wine after that.”
4. The wine texture can suggest you the place of its origin. Lighter shade wines are from colder climatic regions and are light in strength whereas the darker shaded wine ( most golden white and the deepest red )comes from the warmer region and are rich and ripe.
5. Eiswein is the wine made from frozen grapes and is invented by the Germans.
6. The Romans traded wines for slaves and the Greeks traded it for the precious metals. Apparently, wine was a resource of developing trade in ancient times.
7. Oenophobia is the intense hatred or fear from wine.
8. Global warming can become the redefining reason for the making of wine in future. Even a little bit of change in temperature can cause the change in the taste of the wine.
9. There is a right or a wrong way to hold the wine glass, as the heat of body can affect the texture and taste of the wine in your glass.
10. Vintage wines are the wines which are made from the same year’s harvest. Whereas the non-vintage wines are the wines produced from the grapes harvest of different years.
11. The white wine (45-50 degrees F) should be served at a lower temperature than the red wine (50-60 degrees F).
12. Vatican is the country which consumes 74 liters per capita per year of wine, which is the world’s highest in terms of per capita consumption of wine.
13. It is a wine drinking tradition to serve the lighter wines first during the meal and then proceed towards the stronger ones. Younger wines should be served before older, White wines before the red wines and dry wines before sweet wines.
14. The wine made from the grapes that are picked during the rainstorm sometimes taste watery. Such wines are called “dilute” wines.
15. Early Romans started the custom of bumping the glass saying “cheers” with each other to make sure that no one has poisoned the drink. By bumping the glasses the drink spills from one glass to another proving the faith of not poisoning.
You may want to buy the best wine coolers after knowing such an amazing facts of wine. So go ahead and get one for you.
“Wine has been a part of civilized life for some seven thousand years. It is the only beverage that feeds the body, the soul and the spirit of man and at the same time stimulates the mind…” – Robert Mondavi
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