Wine Facts:
A set of ideas, information and concepts for Long Beach wine lovers

• Thirty million gallons of wine were lost in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
• There are over 10,000 varieties of wine grapes.
• The average cost of grapes used to produce a $20 bottle of wine is $2.64.
• The first known reference to a specific wine vintage was made by Roman historian Pliny the Elder, who rated 121 B.C. as a vintage "of the highest excellence." The wine Pliny was "reviewing" was 200 years old.
• Dom Perignon (1638-1715)—the Benedictine cellar master who is generally credited with “inventing” the Champagne making process—was blind.
• Thomas Jefferson helped stock the wine cellars of the first five U.S. presidents and was very partial to fine Bordeaux and Madeira.
• Wine has so many organic chemical compounds it is considered more complex than blood serum.
• From 1970 until the late 1980s, sales and consumption of wine in the United States held a ratio of about 75% white to 25% red. At the turn of the Millennium, the ratio is closer to 50-50.
• Beaujolais Nouveau cannot be legally released until the third Thursday of every November. The due date this year is November 17th.
• Egg whites, bull’s blood, and gelatin have all been used as fining agents to remove suspended particles from wine before bottling. Egg whites are still commonly used.
• In describing wine, the term “hot” refers to a high level of alcohol, leaving a hot, sometimes burning sensation.
• American wine drinkers consume more wine on Thanksgiving than any other day of the year.
• As early as 4000 BC, the Egyptians used corks as stoppers.
• Portugal has 1/3 of the world's cork forests and supplies 85-90% of the cork used in the U.S.
• There is at least one commercial winery in every state of the United States, including Hawaii and Alaska.
• Putting ice and kosher salt in a bucket will chill white wine or Champagne faster.
• In terms of acreage, wine grapes rank #1 among all crops planted worldwide. When Mount Vesuvius buried Pompeii in volcanic lava, it buried more than 200 wine bars with it.