November 1345: Pinot Noir was first mentioned in written records. It was recorded as being grown in Burgundy. In 1470, monks from France introduced the grape to the Rheingau area in Germany, where it has been grown ever since.
November 1575: This is the month one of the most influential Dutch engineers in Bordeaux, Jan Adriaasz Leeghwater, was born. Jan Adriaanszoon, the birth name of Leeghwater. He didn’t choose the name Leeghwater—which is short for low water—until much later. The exact origin of the Leeghwater name’s current spelling is unknown. Leeghwater spelled his name in various ways, including Leegh-water, Leechwater, and Leeghwater. Laechwater and Laachwater are also mentioned in official papers from the era. As a hydraulic engineer, Leeghwater played a crucial role in initiatives for reclaiming land along the Netherlands’ flooded coast. He participated in the restoration of the Beemster polder, the first polder ever built after a lake was drained using wind turbines.
November 1780: This month, the first paper wine bottle label was printed in Germany. The lithographic printing method made it possible to manufacture miniature labels in large amounts. These labels had all of the necessary information to identify the wine by the place it was produced, the type of wine, and the winemaker.
November 1859: In this month, the Hospices de Beaune Wine Auction was first held. The wine sale for charity is the world’s oldest. The Hospices, a hospital and shelter for the needy, were established in 1443 in the center of Burgundy. The annual wine auction is conducted at the Hôtel-Dieu, the oldest structure in the complex, every year on the third Sunday in November. The Hôtel-Dieu is now a museum. Since 1859, wine collectors and enthusiasts from around the world have gathered at the Hospices each year to bid on some of Burgundy’s finest vintages from the numerous domaines that surround Beaune. The Hospices continue the custom of bidding “by candlelight,” where the duration of the bidding is governed by the lighting and extinguishing of a candle. The wine is auctioned off by the barrel. The Hospices have raised more than 5 million Euros through its annual charity auction since the worldwide auction house Christie’s took over its management in 2005. These funds are used to maintain the Hospice and support their philanthropic endeavors.
November 1907: This is when the first Australian wine law was enacted, which among other matters highlighted the techniques allowed in winemaking and prohibited artificial wine fabrications.
November 1976: On this month, Alpana Singh was born in Chicago, Illinois. She is an American Master Sommelier (though she renounced the title in 2020), restaurateur, and local television personality. Outside of the family business, Singh’s first work in the food industry was as a waitress at Bakers Square. She tried to join the US Air Force but failed the medical exam, then she tried to get a job at a fine dining establishment, but they wanted her to know more about wine. She reapplied for the work after educating herself on her own. She impressed the questioner, who hired her and told her to keep learning. She then worked as a sales clerk at Nielsen Bros. Market in Carmel, California, where she gained more experience in the wine industry. At the age of 21, Singh passed the advanced certification test of the Court of Master Sommeliers. When she passed the final test in 2003, she became the youngest woman to have earned the title of Master Sommelier.
November 1995: In this month, Tom Cannavan established the website wine-pages.com. The website is widely regarded as one of the finest on wine, with Robert Parker recommending it in his book, The Wine Buyer’s Guide. Tom Cannavan is a writer and journalist from Scotland who writes about wine. He is regarded as a pioneer of the British wine writing establishment’s internet presence. Cannavan is a contributor to the yearly magazines Which? Wine Guide and The Wine Report, as well as the author of The Good Web Guide to Wine (2000). He has written for many publications, including The Sunday Times, The Independent, The World of Fine Wine, Decanter, and GrapesTALK. Cannavan’s website won the Louis Roederer Award for International Online Writer of the Year in September 2008. “I earned it, I work pretty hard,” Cannavan said as he accepted the trophy. The Festival of Wine was started in 2016 by Cannavan, featuring consumer wine sampling festivals in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London.
November 2006: In this month of the last quarter of 2006, the amount of wine in the world produced for export reached the figure of 8.3 million tons, with Italy making 1.7 million tons, France making 1.4 million tons, and Spain creating 1.3 million tons. This contributed to one of the most significant market shares in wine production.
November 2010: A standard-sized bottle of Chateau Lafite’s 1869 at a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong was sold for $230,000. This established a new record for the highest price ever achieved at a Sotheby’s auction. Even though the wine was centuries old, the collector was familiar with it, and he paid a total of $690,000 to purchase all three bottles of 1869 vintage wine that were available.
November 2011: Treasury Wine Estates created a wine called 19 Crimes targeting a demographic of young boys between the ages of 18 and 34. (Lyons). Two limited-edition vintages sold out in 2011 despite “virtually little advertising” (19 Crimes, “Canadians”) (19 Crimes, “Canadians”). When 19 Crimes came out in 2017, it was the first wine to have an Augmented Reality (A.R.) application. This allowed customers to hover their smartphone over a bottle of wine and watch mugshots of famous 18th-century British criminals come to life as 3D characters who tell their side of the story.
November 2012: In this month, the 2004 Penfolds Kalimna Block 42 Cabernet Sauvignon was auctioned at $168,000. The fact that there are just a dozen bottles and they are packaged in a hand-blown glass ampoule inside a hardwood cabinet is what caused the price to increase. The 2004 Kalimna Block 42 Cabernet Sauvignon retail price of $168,000 is notable even if it wasn’t sold at auction. Penfolds, a vineyard in Australia’s Barossa Valley, bought twelve unique bottles of the 2004 Kalimna Block 42 Cabernet Sauvignon, which normally sells for $661 without the premium packaging. While glass sculptor Nick Mount, metalsmith Hendrik Forster, and glassblower Ray Leake worked on the ampoule, cabinet craftsman Andrew Bartlett crafted the wood cabinet that was included in the retail price. All are employed in South Australia.
November 2013: In this month, the oldest known jugs of wine were found by archaeologists in the northern region of Israel. They were dated to 3,700 years old. According to the data this basement originally held more than 500 gallons of wine. In the Bronze Age, people’s libations were flavored with oils like pistachio, cedar, cinnamon, mint, and resins extracted from wood.
November 2014: During this time, to steal $28,000 worth of wine from a two Michelin-starred restaurant, a con guy pretended to be Didier Drogba, a player for Chelsea. Chef Daniel Clifford’s restaurant Midsummer House was defrauded when a man claiming to be the striker’s agent reserved a table for six people and placed advance wine orders. Later, Mr. Clifford was alarmed after reading of a similar swindle in the Standard, in which the Michelin-starred Fitzrovia restaurant Pied A Terre lost £12,000 in champagne and wine to a man posing as an employee of affluent Arab patrons. Due to the usage of stolen cards, the bank suspended the payments, leaving the eatery with no money.
November 2015: In this month, Grapevine Pinot Gris virus (GPGV) was reported in California for the first time. A GPGV infection field survey was carried out in Napa County in 2019 and 60 free-living vines in riparian environments close to commercial wineries with GPGV infection were sampled. 23 free-living Vitis spp. were found to be GPGV positive after the samples underwent real-time reverse transcription (RT)-PCR testing. Using end-point RT-PCR and Sanger sequencing, GPGV infection was verified in these plants. Sequence analysis revealed that the discovered GPGV isolates were more closely related to asymptomatic viral variants.
November 2018: This month marked the founding of the Institute of Grapevine and Wine Sciences (ICVV). The Institute of Grapevine and Wine Sciences (ICVV) is a research institution devoted to viticulture and oenology. The Institute was created through a partnership between the Government of La Rioja (through the Regional Agricultural Ministry), the Spanish National Research Council, and the University of La Rioja. The Institute is a member of the European research community and will serve as a focal point for grapevine and wine research and development.
November 2019: This month, a new record was set At Emeril Lagasse Foundation Auction when a six liter bottle of The Setting Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon was sold for $1 million.
3rd Wednesday of November Every Year: The world celebrates Zinfandel Day on this day.