Wine History

Welcome to the Vintage Cellars Wine Cellar Cooling Units Ultimate Guide. This is a complete guide to everything you ever wanted to know about Wine Cellar Cooling Units. This is a living document and we will update this on a regular basis to improve information and update with new information. For your convenience we have provided a table of contents...

The first question one might ask is, “Why does anybody need a reason for wine?” Wine, whatever variety you prefer, is a reason unto itself. Having said this, there are those who might feel some wines need justification, namely roseʹ. This wasn't always the case, and it’s certainly not the case in southern France, now or at any time. Roseʹ...

If you haven’t seen it, I’m sure you might be ready to jump out of your seat. On Saturday (8/8/09) I came across and article in the LA Times Business section, “Plastic bottles aim to remold wine industry”. This article has brought up recent memories for the cork versus screw top debate. Now, no one who knows me would consider...

I’ve often found that wine lovers and art lovers are the same people. After all, the two are a significant portion of what makes up the “finer things” in life. This view was confirmed for me this weekend when I was in Chicago and took a trip to the newly-expanded Art Institute, where a special exhibit, A Case for Wine...

Today, the media reported that archeologists in Armenia have unearthed the world's oldest known winery.  They think that the 6,000-year-old winemaking equipment, which includes a wine press and desiccated grape vines and seeds, was used to make special wines for funeral ceremonies held nearby.  Very cool! Read the full story on Time.com here. Click here to learn about the winemaking...

Contrary to what you may think after reading a recent article about wine “newbies” in Wine Spectator, Americans have been enjoying their wine for quite some time.  Historically, the first Europeans that explored this land dubbed it “Vinland” because of the massive grape vines they saw covering the terra firma.  In fact, the early American colonies included “wine making” as one of...

Beethoven was quite fond of his Wine Aside from Beethoven’s well-known drinking habits, and Mozart’s love affair with wine bottles as “romanticized” in Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus (1984), few people realize how great a role wine has played in the history of Western classical music.  During the late 16th to early 18th century, over 250 books containing “Serious” and “Drinking...

When was the last time you ran a moistened finger along the rim of a crystal wine glass, making it sing?  Perhaps, after reading this post, you’ll give it a try tonight! Concerts of “glass music” produced by this same technique used to be all the rage in Europe.  There were even performers, like the blind Marianne Kirchgessner, with entire...

To date, the most expensive bottle of wine sold at auction was a 1787 label-less bottle with “Lafite” and “Th. J.” etched on its front; it was a bottle of wine which some believe to have belonged to Thomas Jefferson.  (The controversy surrounding this claim continues.)  Though the value of the wine was listed as “inestimable,” it sold for 105,000...

Did you know that California is the 4th largest producer of wine in the world?  The three top manufacturers are France, Italy, and Spain. When aged, red wines often fade, eventually turning a rusty, brick red color.  White wines, however, become more golden with age before darkening to brownish yellow. When a wine is paired with food, the food and...

When we talk about aging wine, rarely do we realize just how recent a phenomenon wine aging actually is.  As mentioned in a previous post (Fun Wine Trivia), wine was not originally stored in bottles.  And when wine was not transported in animal wineskins, it was stored in large clay containers and secured with sealants called terracotta amphorae. While these 7000...

Today, most red wines are produced using a process similar to this one... First, a vintner decides when the grapes are ripe.  This is done by taste, concurrent with today's technology of taking accurate sugar readings.  The grapes are then harvested and placed into a machine that removes their stems.  The machine also crushes them (without pressing them) so that...

Named after the Champagne region of France, Champagne was first bottled by French monks.  But where do the bubbles come from?  The process of making the bubbles needed for this sparkling wine was invented by two Benedictine monks and cellarmasters: Frère Jean Oudart (1654–1742) from the abbey of Saint-Pierre aux Monts de Châlons, and Dom Pierre Pérignon (1639–1715) from...

Frederick the Great, who brewed his coffee with Champagne instead of water Here are four interesting people who really enjoyed their wine!  (Whoever said history had to be dry?) Frederick the Great (1712-1786), King of Prussia, brewed his own coffee with Champagne instead of water, adding a little bit of powdered mustard to make the flavor stronger.  (Note: for...

If you haven't heard of biodynamic wine farming, you probably will in the near future. This agricultural philosophy, founded in 1924, is sweeping the wine growing community, from France to Australia, from the United States to Chile. In fact, some of the world's most coveted wines are being produced using this method. What is biodynamic agriculture? Biodynamic agriculture takes organic...

The dry, floral, refreshing roses that hail from Provence have about as much in common with those California wines as a Cabernet has with a glass of icewine. About the roses of Provence The Romans brought wine-making to Provence before the birth of Christ, and the region has been carrying on this tradition for more than 2,500 years. Today, Provence...

As most wine connoisseurs are well aware, the Santa Lucia Highlands have been receiving a great deal of positive attention over the last ten years in spite of the fact that the region is a relatively small part of California's immense AVAs (American Viticultural Areas). The Santa Lucia Mountains separate the Salinas Valley from the Carmel Valley within sight of...

Battle of the Giants The average wine drinker in America is not a connoisseur;  in fact,  far from it.  Most Americans who drink wine drink it because they like it  and they really don’t care about the factors which give wine its taste and body.  Most people can't relate the price of a wine to the quality they can expect...

If you're interested in improving the breadth and depth of your wine collection by buying fine wines at auction, this piece will give you a brief overview of how to get started, what to expect, and who the major players in the US market are. A Little Commerce, A Lot Of Theater Participating in a wine auction has been described...

I'm going to spend the next few minutes convincing you of the truth of this article's title, and I'm going to do it using two real life men and two fictional characters. Before we start though, some men might not even know exactly what champagne is.  In a nutshell, it's wine, but wine from one very particular part of the...