October 5, 1803: On this day, Joseph Jacob Bollinger was born. Together with Paul Renaudin and Jacques Bollinger, Joseph founded the Bollinger Champagne house, a producer of Sparkling wines from the region. Bollinger is among the leading Pinot Noir producers in Champagne, which has shaped the history and reputation of red wine globally.

October 5, 1865: On this day, George C. Yount died. George C. Yount had lived a full life by the time he planted the first vines in Napa Valley in the 1830s. He had served in the War of 1812, which saw the British successfully set Washington, D.C. on fire. Yount captured sea otters in Santa Barbara’s Channel Islands while impersonating Russian immigrants in California. As a carpenter for General Mariano Vallejo, he relocated to Sonoma in the north. Yount and Vallejo became friends, and after granting him the Rancho Caymus land grant, Yount became the valley’s first permanent resident. In 1839, he grew the first grapes in the valley. Yountville in the Napa Valley bears his name.

October 5, 1910: On this day, the implantation of the Republic of Portugal took place. The centuries-old Portuguese monarchy was overthrown at this time, and the First Portuguese Republic took its place. It was the outcome of a coup that the Portuguese Republican Party planned. The event brought about numerous changes in the wine industry as in other economic sectors. It was a new dawn for the Portuguese wine producers and traders.

October 5, 1924: On this day, according to figures provided by the Los Angeles Examiner, the amount of illegally imported liquor from Canada into California totals around fifty million dollars

October 5, 1941: On this day, Steven Spurrier was born. Steven Spurrier was a wine specialist and merchant from the United Kingdom who was known as a promoter of French wine. He was the organizer of the famed Paris Wine Tasting in 1976 which legitimized California’s wineries in the eyes of the much older European wine industry. For more on Steven Spurrier, click here; for more on the 1976 Paris Wine Tasting, see our other posts.

October 5, every year: The world celebrates Vranec World Day on this day. In the world of Wine, there is a growing trend of celebrating “days of wine grape variety,” when each day honors a different wine grape variety that is indigenous to a specific wine nation or area.

For more dates in wine history, click here.