“Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance.”
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
TODAY IN FOOD HISTORY
~ National Mulled Wine Day
1709 Andreas Sigismund Marggraf was born. A German chemist, in 1747 he extracted sugar from the sugar beet and determined it was identical to cane sugar. It wasn't until 1802 that the first beet sugar refinery would be built.
1879 Elmer McCollum was born. He was a chemist who discovered vitamins A, B and D.
DID YOU KNOW?
WINE FACTS AND TRIVIA
The Duplin Winery in North Carolina is the largest producer of Muscadine wines in the world and the oldest and largest winery in the state. The Muscadine grape is also known as Scuppernong, and the oldest cultivated grapevine in the U.S. is a 400 year old Scuppernong vine, the Mothervine, growing on Roanoke Island, North Carolina.
California's vineyards were less than 100,000 acres before Prohibition, and by the end of Prohibition had expanded to over 600,000 acres.
During Prohibition years when alcohol sales were banned by the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1920-1933) wine growers would put large labels on their grape juice that stated:
'Warning: Will Ferment and turn into wine,'
and then proceeded to give detailed instructions of what NOT to do so the grape juice would not accidentally turn into wine.
California produces over 17 million gallons of wine each year.
California has more then 500,000 acres of wine grapes. (2005)
California accounts for more than 90% of U.S. wine production. (2004)
It takes about 2 1/2 pounds of grapes to produce a bottle of wine.
One acre of grapes can produce an average of about 15,000 glasses of wine.
There are about 3,000 commercial wineries in the U.S. (2004)
There is at least one winery in every state in the U.S.
California ranks 4th in world wine production, behind Italy, France and Spain.
Per capita wine consumption in the U.S. is about 2.7 gallons. (2003)
A 6 ounce glass of wine contains about 130 calories.
Benjamin Franklin's cure for flatulence was dried rhubarb and attar of roses dissolved in wine.
PHOTO: Vineyards in the Sonoma County, California wine region of Alexander Valley
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Vineyards_in_Alexander_Valley.jpg
