January 1911: During this month, riots broke out in the towns of Damery and Hautvilliers as tensions approached a breaking point. Trucks carrying grapes from the Loire Valley were pushed into the Marne river by vine growers in Champenoise. More wine and casks were then dumped into the Marne as they swooped upon the warehouses of manufacturers infamous for producing fake Champagne. The French government passed regulations outlining the origins of Champagne wine to allay the fears of the vine growers.

January 1920: Beginning in this month, due to the onset of Prohibition, imports of commercial booze created in other countries entered the United States via Mexican and Canadian border crossings and the seacoasts. In the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the French islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, situated to the south of Newfoundland, were their favored supply sources. The United States government had no control over a point across the Delaware River from Atlantic City, New Jersey, where rum-running ships would often gather. The smugglers moored their boats in this location to offload their contraband onto high-powered vessels designed to outrun United States Coast Guard cutters.

January 1974: On this month, D.P. Hanig’s tongue map, which had been the accepted explanation for taste in almost all biology textbooks for decades, was disproved by Virginia Collings, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh. This conclusion was confirmed once more in 2004 when Gourmet magazine cited research by Linda Bartoshuk (University of Florida) that revealed Riedel’s reliance on the “tongue map” to be erroneous and unscientific. Despite the tongue map problem, Riedel has been successful in converting the industry to a varietal-specific approach with between 50 and 60 different glass shapes. The development of glassware has been greatly aided by Riedel’s significant contributions to olfactory awareness and larger wine glasses, which have accelerated the industry’s and wine knowledge’s rapid expansion. Many individuals continue to have the mistaken belief that the tongue map must have some substance because of the effectiveness of Riedel’s marketing and the popularity of its high-quality glassware.

January 1987: Atlas Peak Wines was founded. The region it is named after was recognized as an AVA five years later, in 1992. The AVA encompasses the hillside terroir and has the rockiest soil of the Napa Valley AVAs. The elevation of the AVA is 760–2600 feet above sea level. Due to its high height, it is windier there than other AVAs on the valley floor. Vineyards have been planted on 1500 acres inside the appellation. Besides, its high altitude limits fog and breezes from San Pablo Bay.

January 2000: In this month, the Tyrian grape variety was granted Plant Breeder’s Rights. Wine grapes Sumoll from Spain and Cabernet Sauvignon, a traditional French grape variety, were crossed to create the variety Tyrian. In 1972, the late Alan Antcliff performed the initial pollination. Peter Clingeleffer and George Kerridge, two viticulturists, led a vast group of people who contributed to the creation of Tyrian (winemaker). High-quality red wine grapes suitable to Australian conditions were to be produced as part of the scheme. Each variety was chosen from a much larger population of seedlings based on selection criteria such as good sugar-to-acid ratios in grape juice, low pH, good color and flavor, and adequate yields. It is one of the most recent grape types to exist and was ‘created’ using genetic engineering by an Australian firm. Only one vineyard, McWilliams Wines in Australia, cultivates the variety; it has a deep color and a vibrant hue, ripens very slowly, and has notes of plum and violet.

January 2001: In this month, Trinity Oaks Wines was established. Trinity Oaks Wine has collaborated with Trees for the Future for more than ten years. By purchasing a bottle of Trinity Oaks Wine, you can support the planting of a tree. In the years of cooperation, more than 21 million trees have been planted. The winery also uses recyclable corks that leave a smaller carbon footprint, unbleached shippers made with 40% post-consumer waste materials, labels printed on 100% post-consumer waste paper, and recyclable glass that is lighter than industry standards, and capsules made from compostable plant-based materials for its capsules.

January 2006: On this month, Casteel Custom Bottling was established. Casteel Custom Bottling is located in Salem, Oregon, United States, and produces bottles in service to the beverage manufacturing industry.

January 2016: In this month, Premier Cru filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation. Only $7 million in assets were mentioned, compared to the company’s $70 million in debt. In addition to more than 9,000 casualties, the Premier Cru crash has raised the following queries: What happened to the over $60 million in payments from customers? How did a 35-year-old, favored by the wealthy wine shop suddenly go out of business? How then were so many knowledgeable collectors conned out of millions? From the outside, Berkeley, California’s Premier Cru wine shop appeared to be a conventional, upmarket wine merchant. The 29,000-square-foot store had wood bookcases, tapestries, and a “unique wine room” filled with prized Bordeaux and Burgundies. However, Premier Cru didn’t merely stock wine on the shelves. The sale of French wine futures contracts to hundreds of wealthy investors and collectors through the Internet allegedly helped it establish a multimillion-dollar trading empire. Investigators and clients were looking into whether Premier Cru’s futures business was being used to finance the greatest wine industry Ponzi scheme ever, with some of the biggest victims being from China.

January 2020: In this month, a major Cabernet Sauvignon spill gave one of Sonoma’s largest rivers a surprising makeover, as thousands of gallons of wine spilled into the Russian River from Rodney Strong Vineyards.

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