This Day in Wine History is a website for history and wine lovers alike. If you enjoy pairing world-class wine with award-winning documentaries, then this site is for you! Our articles are broken into DAYS (this day in wine history for all 365 days!), ARTICLES and IN-DEPTH, which focuses on deeper research, academic citations, and longer essays for the true history lover. Enjoy the latest articles from our talented writers from all over the world.
The Test That Reads Whether Wine’s Sugar Came from Grapes or a Sack
A taster can be fooled; a molecule can't. Since 1981, SNIF-NMR reads a deuterium signature in wine's alcohol to tell whether the sugar started as grapes or came out of a sack.
Pass the Port to the Left — and “Do You Know the Bishop of Norwich?”
The port comes out after dinner — and with it, one of the most precise pieces of unwritten etiquette in the English-speaking world. Photograph by […]
The First Modern Wine Guide Was Written by a Journalist, Not a Merchant
The template for every world-of-wine survey was set in 1833 by Cyrus Redding — a working newspaper editor who had lived in Paris, not a wine merchant.
Champagne Cellars Were So Lethal That Workers Wore Iron Masks Against Exploding Bottles
Champagne aging in the cellars. Each bottle holds about six atmospheres of pressure — and for much of the nineteenth century, a great many of […]
A Tang Poem Froze the Moment Grape Wine Was a Glamorous Import
In a single Tang-dynasty quatrain, Wang Han captured grape wine as a glamorous foreign import in a land of rice wine — drunk from a 'luminous cup' on the Silk Road frontier.
Atmospheric Nuclear Tests Gave Every Post-1952 Vintage a Radioactive Fingerprint
An atmospheric nuclear test. The fallout from tests like these left a faint radioactive marker in every wine made since the early 1950s — and […]
Pombal Uprooted the Douro’s Elderberry Trees to Stop Faked Port
To defend Port's honesty, the Marquis of Pombal drew the world's first demarcated wine region — and ordered the Douro's elderberry trees uprooted to stop the faking of Port's color.
How a Forbidden Drink Became Both a Poetic Genre and a Metaphor for God
In Arabic literature, wine — forbidden in Islam — became both a formal poetic genre (khamriyya) and, in Sufi verse, the central symbol of union with God.
Drinking Wine Neat Marked You as a Barbarian — and Drove a Spartan King Insane
A Greek krater, the great bowl in which wine was mixed with water before it was served. To drink wine unmixed was, to the Greeks, […]
The Waiter Who Smashed a $500,000 Jefferson Margaux — Except There Was No Waiter
The legend says a clumsy waiter destroyed a half-million-dollar bottle once owned by Thomas Jefferson. The truth is stranger — and the bottle may have been a fake.
The Greek Anthology Quietly Preserved a Whole Genre of Wine Poems
A whole genre of ancient Greek wine poems survives for one reason: Byzantine schoolteachers kept copying it. The strange, thousand-year rescue of the Greek Anthology.
Fasting Half the Year: The Ethiopian Church’s Wine Problem
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church keeps one of Christianity’s strictest fasting calendars — and still requires grape wine for the Eucharist, in a land that […]
Finger Lakes: History of New York’s Great Riesling Region
An Atwater Estate vineyard in the Finger Lakes, New York By the This Day in Wine History Editorial Board • ✓ Researched, fact-checked, and cross-referenced […]
Washington Wine: History of America’s Desert Wine Powerhouse
A vineyard in the Yakima Valley, Washington By the This Day in Wine History Editorial Board • ✓ Researched, fact-checked, and cross-referenced against primary and […]
Sonoma: History of Where California Wine Began
Photo: Jim G from Silicon Valley, CA, USA / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY 2.0 By the This Day in Wine History Editorial Board • […]
Napa Valley: History of America’s Most Famous Wine Region
By the This Day in Wine History Editorial Board • ✓ Researched, fact-checked, and cross-referenced against primary and scholarly sources. Napa Valley is the most […]
Vega Sicilia: The History of Spain’s Greatest Wine Estate
Pravdaverita, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons By the This Day in Wine History Editorial Board • ✓ Researched, fact-checked, and cross-referenced against primary and […]
Verdejo: The History of Rueda’s Great White Grape
The Martínsancho Verdejo vineyard in Rueda, Spain By the This Day in Wine History Editorial Board • ✓ Researched, fact-checked, and cross-referenced against primary and […]
Godello: The White Grape Spain Rescued from Extinction
Terraced vineyards above the Sil canyon in the Ribeira Sacra, Galicia. Photo: Tanja Freibott, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). By the This Day in […]
Mencía: The History of North-West Spain’s Rediscovered Red
Vineyards in the Bierzo, Leon, home of Mencia. Photo via Wikimedia Commons (CC0). By the This Day in Wine History Editorial Board • ✓ Researched, […]
Albariño: The History of Galicia’s Great White Grape
Albarino vineyards in Rias Baixas, Galicia. Photo: Re Fresh Vigo, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). By the This Day in Wine History Editorial Board […]
Rías Baixas: History of Galicia’s Albariño
Photo: jacilluch / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 2.0 By the This Day in Wine History Editorial Board • ✓ Researched, fact-checked, and cross-referenced against […]
Cava: The History of Spain’s Great Sparkling Wine
A vineyard in the Penedès, Catalonia, Spain By the This Day in Wine History Editorial Board • ✓ Researched, fact-checked, and cross-referenced against primary and […]
Priorat: History of Catalonia’s Reborn Wine Region
Vineyards near Gratallops in the Priorat, Catalonia. Photo: Angela Llop, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0). By the This Day in Wine History Editorial Board […]
Sherry Wine: The Complete History of Spain’s Fortified Wine
Albariza-soil vineyards near Jerez, Andalusia, Spain By the This Day in Wine History Editorial Board • ✓ Researched, fact-checked, and cross-referenced against primary and scholarly […]
