January 12, 1831: On this day, Philip Speakman Webb was born. British architect and designer Philip Speakman Webb is frequently referred to as the “Father of Arts & Crafts Architecture.” He exhibited a dedication to “the art of common building” by using vernacular architecture.” In 1860, he is credited with creating one of the iconic Victorian wine glasses. Following the Industrial Revolution, the Victorian era (1837–1901) in England was a time of fascinating inventions, exploration, and discoveries. The size and quantity of wine glasses at a meal started to expand at home (if you were wealthy). Plated meals were carried to the table and sat in front of the guests in a sequence of successive courses. Larger glasses were required because they were left on the table and didn’t need to be filled after each sip.
January 12, 1893: On this day in 1893 Hermann Goering was born in Bavaria in southern Germany. Many years later he became a major figure within the Nazi Party. After the Nazis seized power in the country in 1933 Goering amassed a wide range of powers. In 1934 he established the infamous Gestapo and the following year he founded the new German air-force, the Luftwaffe. Goering’s addiction to opiates became common knowledge in the years that followed, but what is less well-known is that he also amassed a huge wine collection. This began when he had wineries and cellars across France plundered following the conquest of the country in 1940. By 1945 when the Russians surrounded Berlin Goering had a cellar which contained over 3,000 bottles of some of the world’s most prized wines. When the city fell, large portions of these were carried off and drank by Russians celebrating the end of the war. However, some survived. To this day there are 129 bottles from Goering’s collection housed at the Cricova Cellar in Moldova, worth approximately $15,000 each. For more information, see Roger Manvell and Heinrich Fraenkel’s Goering: The Rise and Fall of the Notorious Nazi Leader (London, 2011). In addition, see this article on Grape Collective and this article from WW2 History Book.
January 12, 1983: Rocky Knob AVA was established. Located in Virginia, the viticulture area mainly produces Seyval Blanc.
January 12, 2011: National Geographic reported the discovery of the world’s oldest known winery at the Areni-1 cave complex in Armenia, a roughly 6,100-year-old wine-production site excavated with partial National Geographic Society funding.
Header image: Bill McChesney from Charlottesville, VA — via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).
