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In France laws dictate mandate that labels feature
the
names of the
regions and sub-regions where wines are made. In 2003 there were
some
400
appellationes d'origine controlées (AOCs).
(WSJ, 5/30/03, p.A3)
8000BC Wine
was produced in the region known as Colchis (later Georgia) as early
as this time.
(Econ, 11/15/08, p.100)
7000BC Scientists in 2004 found the earliest
evidence of winemaking from pottery shards dating from 7,000 BC in
northern China.
(Reuters, 12/7/04)(SFC, 12/7/04, p.A1)
5400BC-5000BC Archeologists have determined that
wine was made in villages in Iran's remote Zagros Mountains about
this time. Wine jars were dug up near the ruined village called
Hajii Firuz Tepe and analyzed to have contained a retsina type of
wine.
(SFC, 6/6/96, p.A3)(Reuters, 12/7/04)
4000BC In 2011 it was reported that the earliest
known winery, dating to about this time, had been discovered in
Armenia.
{Wine, Armenia, HistoryBC}
(SFC, 1/11/11, p.A2)
2137BCE Oct 22, This is the date of the earliest
recorded eclipse according to the Shu King, the book of historical
documents of ancient China. Two royal astronomers, Hsi and Ho,
failed in their duties to predict the eclipse due to too much rice
wine and were executed.
(SCTS, p.27)
1600BC-1500BC Art pieces attributed to the Xia
Dynasty of China are on exhibit at the Shanghai Museum. These
include an ax blade, a three legged food vessel, and 3 wine vessels.
(WSJ, 5/9/96, p.A-16)
c1116BCE In China an imperial decree stated that
it was a requirement of the heavenly powers that people regularly
take a moderate amount of alcoholic drink.
(SFEC, 8/9/98, Z1 p.8)
800BC-700BC The Languedoc
region of France has produced wine since this time. Langue d’oc
refers to the language of Occitan spoken in the region. Greeks began
planting vineyards in Languedoc around 600BCE.
(WSJ, 2/09/99, p.A20)(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T10)(WSJ,
5/30/03, p.A3)
750BCE Two Phoenician ships from Tyre carrying
amphorae filled with wine sank about this time some 30 miles off the
coast of Israel. In 1999 a team led by Robert Ballard discovered the
ships at a depth of about 1,500 feet.
(SFC, 6/24/99, p.A14)
206BC-25C In 2003 China's Xinhua News Agency
reported that archaeologists in western China had discovered five
earthenware jars of 2,000-year-old rice wine in an ancient Han
dynasty tomb (206BCE-25CE), and its bouquet was still strong enough
to perk up the nose.
(AP, 6/21/03)
19BC A wine jug bearing
reference to King Herod was found in an ancient garbage dump near
the synagogue at Masada, Israel. The cone-shaped, two-handled jug
held about 20 gallons of wine and had been shipped from Italy.
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.D1)
800-900 Jaber bin Hayyan, an Iraqi polymath,
elaborated on algebra (al-jabr) and described "flammable vapours" at
the mouths of heated wine vessels.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.68)
1141 The Ricasoli family
produced Chianti wine.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1381 England’s King Richard II
issued a grant specifying tolls from every ship entering London,
including "two roundlets of wyne" for any galley passing the Tower.
(AP, 7/18/09)
1385 In Italy Giovanni di
Pietro Antinori branched from his family’s lucrative silk and wool
business to join the Florentine wine makers guild. By 2008 the
family business had vineyards in Hungary, Chile and California’s
Napa Valley.
(SFC, 4/14/06, p.D1)(WSJ, 4/5/08, p.A6)
1400-1500 Europeans began producing ethereal
sounds from wine glasses containing liquids.
(SFEC,12/28/97, DB p.17)
1521 Nov 20, Arabs attributed a
shortage of water in Jerusalem to Jews making wine.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1540 German vintner records
described this year as the “Great Sun Year,” as relentless heat and
drought withered the Rhine between Cologne and the Netherlands.
(SFC, 3/31/05, p.F3)
1551 Spaniards in Chile began
producing wine.
(SFC, 8/31/07, p.F4)
1577 Francisco Hernandez,
Spanish explorer traveling through Mexico’s highlands, noted the
many uses of the maguey (agave) plant. He cited it as a useful fuel,
a material for cloth and ropes, with sap used to make vinegar and
wine.
(Arch, 9/02, p.32)
1593 In Mexico Capt. Don
Francisco de Urdiqola started the first vineyard in the valley of
Tlaxcaltecas at his El Rosario Hacienda.
(SFEC, 11/7/99, p.T8)
1600-1700 Cognac 1st appeared when Dutch sea
merchants found that they could better preserve white wine shipped
from France to northern Europe by distilling it. They then learned
the wine got better as it aged in wooden barrels.
(WSJ, 7/14/03, p.A1)
1626 The F.E. Trimbach winery
was established in Ribeauville, Alsace.
(SFC, 3/31/05, p.F2)
1630 In Hungary Mate Szepsy
Laczko described the method for producing Tokaj wine made from
botrytized grapes.
(WSJ, 10/5/00, p.A24)
1638-1715 Dom Perignon, a French monk. He
introduced blending, vineyard and cellaring practices that made
champagne a better wine.
(Hem., 10/97, p.104)
1639 Francois Citois, the
physician of Cardinal Richelieu, published a book that described the
disease colica Pictonum, and noted the prevalence of the disease to
the wine region of Poitou, where tart wines needed sweetening.
(NH, 7/96, p.48)
1639 The Hugel company began
producing wine in the Alsatian village of Riquewihr.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R46)(SFC, 6/12/09, p.B3)
1650 According to legend, a
Hungarian priest named Mate Szepsi Lacko was the first to make Aszu,
a Tokaji wine in 1650, when he delayed the harvest fearing an attack
by the Turks. Aszu had actually been mentioned in historical
documents from the 1500s.
(AP, 9/8/04)
xxxx
1660s The British began to
dominate the trade in port wine from Portugal after a political spat
with the French denied them the French Bordeaux wines. Brandy was
added to the Portuguese wines to fortify them for the Atlantic
voyage.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.T7)(SFEC, 7/12/98, p.T8)
1663 Apr 10, Samuel Pepys,
London-based diarist, noted that he had enjoyed a French wine called
Ho Bryan at the Royal Oak Tavern. This same year the Pontacs, a top
wine-making family in Bordeaux, founded a fashionable London
restaurant called Pontack’s Head. Ho Bryan later came to be called
Chateau Haut Brion.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.131)
1678 The 1st recorded shipment
of Vinho do Porto was made from Portugal to England.
(SFC, 11/13/03, p.D1)
1660-1670 The British began to dominate the trade
in port wine from Portugal after a political spat with the French
denied them the French Bordeaux wines. Brandy was added to the
Portuguese wines to fortify them for the Atlantic voyage.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.T7)(SFEC, 7/12/98, p.T8)
1662 Englishman Christopher
Merret presented a paper to the Royal Society on making sparkling
wine. This was noted in the 1998 "World Encyclopedia of Champagne
and Sparkling Wine" by Tom Stevenson.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.W13)
1673 Feb 20, The 1st recorded
wine auction was held in London.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1678 The 1st recorded shipment
of Vinho do Porto was made from Portugal to England.
(SFC, 11/13/03, p.D1)
1688 Persecuted Huguenots,
French Protestants, arrived in South Africa and improved the quality
of wine production.
(SSFC, 12/3/00, p.T6)
1690-1700 Particularly severe weather hit Germany
and prompted vintners use more wine sweeteners.
(NH, 7/96, p.51)
1694-1696 An outbreak of colic struck the region
around Ulm, Germany. Eberhard Gockel, the city physician, was able
to trace the cause to a wine sweetener that used a white oxide of
lead.
(NH, 7/96, p.48)
1696 Duke Eberhard Ludwig of
Wurttenburg, Germany, learned of Eberhard Gockel’s findings on lead
poisoning in wine and banned all lead-based wine additives.
(NH, 7/96, p.49)
1697 Eberhard Gockel published:
"A Remarkable Account of the Previously Unknown Wine Disease."
(NH, 7/96, p.49)
1699 The King of Spain, due to
competition, banned the production of wine in the Americas, except
for that made by the church.
(SFEC, 11/7/99, p.T8)
1710 The Elector of Hanover
commissioned the Hanover Cistern and Fountain, a silver buffet
service intended to cool wine. In 1997 it had an estimated value of
$2-3 million.
(SFC, 10/8/97, Z1 p.4)
1717 Louis Liger (b.1658),
French writer, died. His 1700 book “Oeconomie Generale de la
Campagne, ou Nouvelle Maison Rustique” included a chapter on French
viticulture.
(SFC, 10/21/04,
p.F3)(www.rappaport.it/catalogo.htm)
1729 Ruinart, a French
Champagne house, was founded. In 2006 it remained the oldest
Champagne house in the world.
(SFC, 10/13/06, p.F2)
1733 Feb 12, English colonists
led by James Oglethorpe founded Savannah, Ga. Gen. James Edward
Oglethorpe sailed up the Savannah River with 144 English men, women
and children and in the name of King George II chartered the Georgia
Crown Colony. He created the town of Savannah, to establish an ideal
colony where silk and wine would be produced, based on a grid of
streets around six large squares.
(SFC, 6/25/95, p.T-7)(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T4)(AP,
2/12/98)
1743 French champagne maker
Moet was founded.
(Econ, 3/6/04, Survey p.6)
1765 Hennessy began producing
cognac.
(Econ, 3/6/04, Survey p.6)
1766 The Beekman Arms of
Rhinebeck, NY, began serving beer. In 2000 it was the oldest
continuously operating tavern in the US.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, Z1 p.2)
1772 The French Veuve Clicquot
champagne was first produced, but the first bottles were laid down
for ten years.
(AFP, 7/17/10)
1776 A New York tavern keeper
mixed a rum and "cocktail." The name was derived from rooster
feathers used as ornaments for glasses.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
c1776-1781 Molly Corbin manned a cannon during the
American Revolution and was wounded. She was cited for bravery and
sent to the Invalid Regiment at West Point where she received half
the male pay. She was also denied the daily rum ration until her
complaints were heard.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, Z1 p.3)
1779 Sep 13, Frederick II of
Prussia issued a manifesto in which he bemoaned the increased use of
coffee and called for more consumption of beer.
(SFC, 1/30/99, p.D3)
1787 Thomas Jefferson toured
Bordeaux while serving as US ambassador to France. He purchased
cases Haut-Brion, d’Yquiem, and Margaux for himself and George
Washington.
(WSJ, 9/1/06, p.A9)
1789 cJul 11, In France just
days before the Bastille was taken the tavern keepers and wine
merchants of Belleville, angered by levies on food and drink, sacked
the local tax collector’s office.
(SFEC, 6/28/98, p.T8)
1789 Sep 11, Alexander Hamilton
was appointed the first U.S. secretary of the treasury. During his
tenure, Hamilton established the National Bank, introduced an excise
tax, suppressed the Whiskey Rebellion and spearheaded the effort for
the federal government to assume the debts of the states. In the
presidential election of 1800, Hamilton broke the deadlock between
Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr by supporting Jefferson. The enmity
between Hamilton and his longtime political enemy Burr grew worse
during the 1804 campaign for governor of New York.
(AP, 9/11/97)(HNPD, 1/11/99)
1790 In Porto, Portugal, the
House of Sandeman winery was found by the Scot, George Sandeman.
(SFEC, 7/12/98, p.T8)
1794 Napoleon’s occupying army
in Maastricht, Netherlands, took back to France a giant dinosaur
head that was found in a dark recess of St. Peter’s mountain in
1780. It was named the Mosasaurus and roamed the seas some 70
million years ago. The head was lugged to the home of Theodorus
Godding, a canon at the local church. The French say that he swapped
it to Napoleon for 600 bottles of wine. Records however seem to
indicate otherwise.
(NYT, 6/7/96, p.A4)
1795 Jim Beam, US producer of
fine Bourbon whiskey was founded.
(Hem., Dec. '95, p.82)
1797 John Anderson, a Scottish
farm manager, convinced George Washington that distilling whiskey
would make money. In a six-week season each spring, Washington’s men
netted about a million shad and herring from the Potomac River. The
catch was then salted, packed in barrels, and exported. His
diversified farming was less successful, largely because of his long
absences from Mount Vernon.
(AM, 9/01, p.80)(HNQ, 8/30/02)
1797 The wine bottles of
Chateau Lafite that date back to this year are recorked every 25
years to safeguard the wine and prevent deterioration caused by
oxidation through decayed corks.
(WSJ, 11/26/97, p.A12)
1799 Dec 14, George Washington
(66), the first president of the United States (1789-97), died at
his Mount Vernon, Va., home at age 67. By 8 p.m. he was aware that
he was dying, whispering, "I die hard, but I am not afraid to go."
Washington died at approximately 10:30 p.m., December 14, 1799, at
the age of 67. He died from the incompetence of physicians who bled
him to death while fighting pneumonia. Richard Brookhiser authored
"Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington." The Washingtons
at this time had 317 slaves. His 5 stills in Virginia turned out
some 12,000 gallons of corn whiskey a year.
(A&IP, ESM, p.16)(AP, 12/14/97)(WSJ, 11/6/98,
p.W15)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.8)(SFC, 12/11/99, p.B6)(MC, 12/14/01)
1804 Meriwether Lewis and
William Clark packed up 5,555 rations of flour, and 120 gallons of
whiskey for their western journey of exploration that would last 2
½ years. In 1996 Stephen Ambrose published an account of
their trip titled: "Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas
Jefferson, and the opening of the American West." The cutthroat
trout, Onchorhynchus clarki lewisi, was found to be highly abundant.
In 1997 the fish was on the brink of extinction.
(WSJ, 1/30/96, p.A-12)(SFC, 5/21/97, p.A2)
1809 Jan 19, Edgar Allan Poe
(d.1949), American writer, was born in Boston. His father, David
Poe, was an Irish-American actor and abandoned his family shortly
after Edgar’s birth. His mother, Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins, died in
1811 and he grew up with a foster family. Poe studied briefly at the
University of Virginia, but then he quarreled with his foster father
and went to Boston in 1827, where he published his first volume of
poetry anonymously. In the early 1840s Poe became known for his
lyrical, brooding poems and detective stories, such as "The Gold
Bug" and "Murders at the Rue Morgue." In fact, he is recognized as
the father of the modern detective story. Poe was unafraid to
criticize literary practices of the time, stressing the importance
of artistic value more than moral value. After battles with
alcoholism and his wife Virginia's illness and death, Poe became
depressed but continued to write. He became engaged again in 1849
but soon died at the age of 40. His best known stories include:
"Fall of the House of Usher " and "The Tell-Tale Heart." His most
famous poems are "The Raven" and Annabel Lee." "I hold that a long
poem does not exist. I maintain that the phrase, 'a long poem,' is
simply a flat contradiction in terms."
(CFA, '96,Vol 179, p.38)(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.T5)(AP,
1/19/98)(HNPD, 1/19/99)(AP, 1/29/99)
1817 Work began on the
Erie Canal, more properly named the New York State Barge Canal. The
canal connected Lake Erie with the Hudson and opened on October 26,
1825. The canal was proposed by NY Gov. Dewitt Clinton and
detractors called it "Clinton's Folly." Workers were paid a quart of
whiskey a day plus $1. [see 1826]
(WSJ, 7/3/96, p.A8)(HN, 7/4/98)(IB, Internet,
12/7/98)(SFEC, 12/27/98, Z1 p.8)(SFEC, 1/31/99, Z1 p.8)
1818 In Russia the Smirnoff
family went into the vodka business.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1819 In Savannah Chatham
Artillery Punch was served to Pres. James Monroe. It was a
concoction of Catawba, rum, gin, brandy, rye whiskey, strong tea,
brown sugar, Benedictine, juices of oranges and lemons, Maraschino
cherries and champagne.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T4)
1822 Dec 27, Louis Pasteur
(d.1895), French chemist and microbiologist, was born in Dole,
France. One of his several monumental contributions to science and
industry was pasteurization, the process of heating wine, beer and
milk to kill microorganisms that cause fermentation and disease.
Pasteur also developed important vaccines and his work on molecular
asymmetry led to the science of stereochemistry. He was the first to
vaccinate animals for anthrax and chicken cholera, and in 1885 he
proved that his rabies vaccine could be used successfully on humans
when he saved the life of a 9-year-old boy who had been bitten by a
rabid dog. The Pasteur Institute was formed in Paris in 1888 for
research on rabies. Pasteur ran the institute until his death in
1895.
(WUD, 1994, p.1055)(AP, 12/27/97)(HNPD, 12/27/98)
1825 Franciscan missionaries
planted vineyards north of San Francisco to make sacramental wine.
(WSJ, 4/16/97, p.CA1)
1830 American alcohol
consumption reached 7.1 gallons per capita.
(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A28)
1831 James Busby, Scottish-born
father of Australian viticulture, collected 680 different vines from
botanical gardens in Montpellier, Paris and London and brought them
to Australia. These included the syrah grape, called shiraz in
Australia.
(SFC, 5/5/05, p.F10)
1838 Jan 26, Tennessee became
the 1st state to prohibit alcohol.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1839 Cyrus Redding (1785-1870),
English wine merchant and author, published “Every Man His Own
Butler.” This included the statement: “claret fro a bishop, port for
a rector, currant for a curate and gin for the clerk.”
(Econ, 12/19/09,
p.132)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_Redding)
1851 Jun 2, Maine became the
first state to enact a law prohibiting alcohol. By the Civil War 13
Northern states had bans on alcohol sales. In 1998 Thomas R. Pegram
authored "Battling Demon Rum," a history of anti-alcohol movements
in the US.
(AP, 6/2/97)(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A28)
1851 Jacob Gundlach arrived in
SF and soon established a brewery. In 1858 he bought a winery in
Sonoma.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.D4)
1852 Almaden Vineyards was
begun by Etienne Thee, an émigré from France, who
settled near Los Gatos, Ca.
(SFC, 1/24/08, p.C3)
1852 In Poland Ignacy
Lukasiewicz, a druggist, found oil seeping from the ground and in an
attempt to make vodka distilled it to produce the first kerosene.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, Z1 p.2)
1853 May 11, Baron Nathaniel de
Rothschild of England purchased Chateau Mouton in Bordeaux, France,
for 1,125,000 gold francs.
(www.pageaday.com)
1853 Oct 13, Lillie Langtry
(d.1929), British actress, was born. "The sentimentalist ages far
more quickly than the person who loves his work and enjoys new
challenges." She started the California Guenoc and Langtry Estate
wineries.
(AP, 7/27/98)(HN, 10/13/00)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.C8)
1853 French wines were first
ranked at the order of Napoleon. The top grades were selected on the
basis of price, not taste.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T4)
1854 Colonel Agoston Haraszthy,
a Hungarian Count, acquired several hundred acres of the old Rancho
Feliz in California's San Andreas Valley. He planted 30 acres of
zinfandel and muscat grapes along with 20,000 fruit trees. He later
moved to Sonoma.
(Ind, 5/11/02, 5A)
1854 Pierre Pellier, having
settled in Santa Clara Valley, planted cuttings from France and
established his 1st San Jose, Ca., vineyards. In 1881 his daughter
married vintner Pierre Mirrasou. Mirrassou sold its brand name to
Gallo in 2002.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.D4)(SFC, 8/5/04, p.B7)
1855 Napoleon III ordered up a
list of the best wines of Bordeaux and ranked the best according to
quality and price. Those at the top became known as the first
growths and included Chateaux Haut-Brion, Lafite Rothschild, Latour,
and Margaux. Mouton Rothschild was elevated in 1973.
(WSJ, 4/23/04, p.A1)(SFC, 10/1/04, p.W6)
1856 The D’Agostini Winery in
Amador County, Ca. was founded. It later became the Sobon Estate
Winery.
(SFC, 12/10/95, p.T-1)
1857 Count Agoston Haraszthy
founded the Buena Vista Winery in Sonoma, Ca.
(WCG, p.67)
1857 In Germany H. Sichel &
Sohne, the producers of the popular Blue Nun white wine, was
founded.
(SFC, 10/8/97, Z1 p.4)
1857 In Lebanon the modern wine
industry began when a group of Jesuit monks founded Chateau Ksara in
the Bekaa Valley.
(SFC, 1/11/08, p.F4)
1858 Jacob Gundlach bought a
vineyard in Sonoma, Ca., and called it Rhinefarm. Charles Bundschu
from Mannheim, Germany, known for his prose and keen business sense,
joined the company in 1868, and became part of the family when he
married Jacob Gundlach’s daughter Francisca in 1875.
(SFC, 12/19/02,
p.D4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gundlach_Bundschu)
1858 Charles Krug, a German
immigrant, decided to put Napa wine onto a business footing using
the Mission grapes. He served a short apprenticeship under Col.
Agoston Haraszthy in Sonoma.
(WCG, 7/95, p.21)
1859 In Australia the Yalumba
Winery in the Barossa Valley, South Australia, was begun by the Sam
Smith family.
(SFEC, 10/25/98, p.T5)
1860 In France the Yonne
Department had almost 99,000 acres of grapevines for wine. Diseases
such as oidium and phylloxera destroyed the Chablis vines in the
late 19th century. The Carmenére grape was wiped out in
France. In 1994 it was found to be thriving in Chile.
(SFC, 7/16/97, Z1 p.4)(WSJ, 12/28/01, p.A17)
1860 Britain forswore most
import duties. Britain and France signed a free-trade treaty, which
drastically reduced the duty on French wines.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.74)(Econ, 12/19/09, p.132)
1861 Young’s "Scientific
Secrets" was published. It is a book of recipes and formulas for
furniture polish, beers, wines, and directions on interpreting
flowers’ "language."
(CM, 12/94, p.59)
1861 Col. Agoston Haraszthy, a
Hungarian immigrant to the US who settled in Sonoma, California, was
asked by Calif. Governor John Downey to go to Europe and to find
sample cuttings of the best European varieties of grapes.
Haraszthy’s methodology, personality and perseverance earned him the
name of Father of California Wines.
(WCG, p.58)
1861 Britain introduced the
Single Bottle Act allowing grocers to sell wine by the bottle.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.132)
1861 In Russia Dmitri Ivanovich
Mendelyev, chemist, determined that the maximum solubility of
alcohol in water occurs at a ratio of 40% to 60%. This became the
ideal mixture for sipping vodka for Russians.
(WSJ, 2/2/98, p.A23)
1862 In Napa Valley, Ca., Jacob
Schram (1826-1905) purchases 200 acres on Diamond Mountain and
founded the Schramsberg Winery. He used Chinese laborers to clear
the forests, plant the vineyards and dig the caves to store his
wine. In 1965 Jack and Jamie Davies purchased the winery.
(SFEM, 10/27/96, p.40)(SFC, 12/22/05, p.F1)(SFC,
1/18/08, p.A12)
1862 Baron James Forester, a
wealthy Scottish port wine shipper, capsized on the Douro River in
Portugal and was dragged to the river bottom by his money belt full
of gold coins.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.T7)
1862-1906 Bitters bottles were manufactured in
Tiffin, Ohio and Omaha, Neb. to hold "American Life Bitters," an
alcoholic concoction of herbs and gin that was marketed as medicine.
(SFC, 6/3/98, Z1 p.6)
1864 Giovanni Foppiano arrived
in California from Genoa. In 1896 he purchased the Riverside Farm in
Healdsburg and founded Foppiano Vineyards.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.D4)
1864 Phylloxera was 1st noted
on grapevines in Roquemaure, France. It ravaged the vineyards there
for nearly 20 years. In 1872 it reached Austria and Portugal. In
1875 it appeared in Australia and in 1886 in South Africa. In 1987
George Ordish authored “The Great Wine Blight.” In 2004 Christy
Campbell authored “Phylloxera: How Wine was Saved for the World.” In
2011 George Gale authored “Dying on the Vine: How Phylloxera
Transformed Wine.”
(SSFC, 3/27/05, p.E3)(Econ, 7/23/11, p.81)
1866 Jul 29, Barbe-Nicole
Clicquot (b.1777), head of the Clicquot champagne business, died.
She was widowed at age 27 and transformed her husbands struggling
business into one of the great champagne houses of France. In 2008
Tilar J. Mazzeo authored “The Widow Clicquot.”
(WSJ, 11/5/08,
p.A21)(http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbe-Nicole_Clicquot-Ponsardin)
1869 Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welsh,
a wine steward at a church in Vineland, pasteurized Concord grape
juice to produce an unfermented sacramental wine. He later came to
be known as the father of the fruit juice industry.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, Z1 p.8)
1871 In southern California
vineyards were planted at the Sierra Madre Winery at Lamanda Park.
In 1885 Albert Brigdon and J.F. Clark built a winery there and
proceeded to win numerous awards including a gold medal in Paris in
1900. The winery close in 1923.
(WSJ, 2/28/09, p.W7)
1872 May 10, Victoria Woodhull
became the first woman nominated for U.S. president. Thomas Nast
depicted her as "Mrs. Satan." Woodhull adhered to a diet prescribed
by Sylvester Graham, known for his ginger-colored crackers.
Sylvester preached against demon rum and died at age 57 after
administering himself a medicinal treatment with considerable
liquor.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, Par p.14-16)(SFC, 10/17/98,
p.E5)(HN, 5/10/98)
1872 Jun 4, Harvey Flint
(d.1882) patented his Quaker Bitters, a general cure-all with 21.4%
alcohol. He had recently left a family furniture business in
Providence, Rhode Island, and began making Quaker Bitters under the
name Flint & Co.
(SFC, 8/8/07,
p.G2)(www.bottlebooks.com/temperance/temperance.htm)
1872 Jun 17, Canadian George
Hoover hauled in a wagon load of whiskey and set up a tent shop
called Hoover’s Bar five miles west of Fort Dodge. It was the
founding business of Dodge City. The town up to this time had been
dry.
(SFC, 6/13/98, p.E4)(HN, 6/17/98)
1872 A police raid in Glasgow,
Scotland, found only 2 pubs in 30 serving real Scotch whiskey.
(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A7)
1873 Adolph Coors selected the
waters of Clear Creek, Colorado, for his dream of high producing a
high quality beer.
(SFEC, 4/30/00, BR p.4)
1873 Asa T. Soule of Rochester,
NY, concocted the alcohol laced Hop Bitters patent medicine and made
a fortune. The Univ. of Rochester later declined a $100,000 offer to
change its name to Hops Bitters Univ.
(SFC, 12/11/99, p.B6)
1874 The first national
convention of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union was held. The
Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was established to promote
the movement for prohibition in the U.S. It shut down saloons all
over the country because they believed that male drinking was the
cause of prostitution, child abuse and poverty. Under the leadership
of its second president, Frances Willard, the WCTU grew to a
nationwide movement with 200,000 members, the largest and most
socially acceptable women’s organization of the time. Although
prohibition was the WCTU’s primary mission, they also campaigned for
woman suffrage, reasoning that if women could vote, they would
reform American society for the betterment of all. The WCTU spurred
the founding in 1893 of the Anti-Saloon League. On December 18,
1917, the U.S. Congress adopted and submitted to the states an
amendment to the Constitution prohibiting the manufacture, sale, or
transportation of alcoholic liquors. The 18th Amendment was declared
ratified on January 29, 1919 and went into effect on January 16,
1920. It was repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933.
(SFC, 3/30/97, Z1. p.6)(HNQ, 11/189)(HNPD,
8/13/00)
1874 In France the Bordeaux
Ecole de Management was founded. In 2002 the school introduced a
master’s program in business administration for wine.
(WSJ, 3/19/02, p.B1)
1875 Lydia Estes Pinkham
(1819-1883) was in her mid-fifties when economic hardship forced her
and her family to begin selling bottles of a homemade health remedy.
Mrs. Pinkham’s tonic, formulated from herbs and 20% alcohol as a
"solvent and preservative," was first sold as a cure for "female
complaints." Business grew as the family aggressively marketed their
product with trade cards which linked Pinkham’s Compound with the
patriotism and progress represented by the Brooklyn Bridge. Lydia
Pinkham was probably the best-known woman in America at the time.
Her medicines remained tremendously popular until the 1930s, when
medical science and public awareness of the compound’s unfounded
claims reduced sales to a trickle.
(HNPD, 6/30/98)
1875 The Schmitt brewery was
built by an innkeeper for his restaurant in Singen in the German
state of Thuringia. Richard Schmitt buys the brewery in May 1885 for
DM9,900. Today it is run by the Obstfelder family and produces
around 26,000 gallons of beer annually.
(Hem., Nov.’95, p.113-114)
1875 Calgary, Canada, was
founded by Troop F of the royal Northwest Mounted Police. They built
a log fort at the junction of the Bow and Elbow Rivers to control
illegal whiskey traders operating from outposts with names like Fort
Whoop-Up.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, p.T11)
1876 Adolphus Busch, a German
immigrant beer-maker, licensed the name of Budweiser in America. The
name came from the town of Budweis in Bohemia. The town was later
renamed Ceske Budejovice but a local brewery used the Budweiser name
for its beer.
(SFC, 4/9/98, p.A12)
1876 Two brothers from Italy
named Simi founded the Simi Winery just north of Healdsburg, Ca. It
is currently owned by Moet-Hennessy / Louis Vuitton.
(WCG, 7/95, p.78)
1878 May 25, Bill "Bojangles"
Robinson was born and began his dancing career in childhood. The
young song-and-dance man learned his trade in beer gardens,
traveling companies and later on the vaudeville circuit. Robinson
performed only within the black community until he was 50 years old,
when his unique style of tap-dancing, including his signature "stair
dance," crossed over to white audiences. Robinson, who continued to
perform into his late sixties, made 14 Hollywood motion pictures,
playing both stereotypical black roles and a handful of leads. He
died of a chronic heart condition in 1949.
(WSJ, 5/19/98, p.A20)(HNPD, 5/26/99)
1879 Genesee Brewing began
producing beer in Rochester, NY.
(SFC, 3/13/00, p.B2)
1879 Gustave Niebaum, a Finnish
sea captain, founded the Inglenook Winery near Rutherford in the
Napa Valley of California. Niebaum had made a fortune in the Alaskan
fur trade. His Inglenook Chateau, designed by Hamden McIntyre,
opened in 1887. The winery was later sold in pieces to movie
director, Francis Ford Coppola, who bought a large part in 1975 and
the rest of it in 1994-95. In 1994 Constellation Brands acquired
Inglenook Vineyards in the Central Valley and in 2008 sold the
winery to the Wine Group of San Francisco along with Almaden
Vineyards in a deal valued at $134 million.
(WSJ, 11/7/95, p.A-20)(SFC, 1/24/08, p.C3)(SSFC,
4/26/09, p.E6)
c1880 The Durif grape was named
by Francois Durif, French botanist and grape breeder, as the result
of an unintended crossing between two varieties. California vines
labeled Petite Sirah were later identified as Durif. In 1998 the
Durif grape was identified as a cross between the French grape
Peloursin and Syrah
(SFC, 1/20/05, p.F5)
1881 Feb 19, Kansas became the
first state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1881 The story of California’s
Asti Winery began as Italian Swiss Colony when Italian immigrant
Andrea Sbarboro invited anybody of Italian or Swiss descent to join
him and work on land at Asti in northern California to produce wine
and share profits. Their first vintage in 1886 was called Tipo
Chianti. In 2004 Jack Florence authored “Legacy of a Village: The
Italian Swiss Colony Winery and People of Asti, California.”
(SSFC, 5/31/09, p.E6)
1881-1882 Dr. Muller of Germany was said to be
working at the Swiss Geisenheim viticultural station when he made
the crossing that joined the late-ripening Riesling and the
early-ripening and prolific Silvaner. The grape became know as
Muller-Thurgau. Müller-Thurgau entered the well-kept records of
Germany's vineyards in 1921, but it was not until a major symposium
on the crossing was held at Alzey in 1938 that it gained any
widespread acceptance.
(www.winepressnw.com/features/story/4842844p-4779998c.html)
1883 Lydia Estes Pinkham
(b.1819) died. She was in her mid-fifties when economic hardship
forced her and her family to begin selling bottles of a homemade
health remedy. Mrs. Pinkham's tonic, formulated from herbs and 20%
alcohol as a "solvent and preservative," was first sold in 1875 as a
cure for "female complaints."
(HNPD, 6/30/01)(WSJ, 4/23/02, p.D7)
1883 Wente Winery was founded
in California. Carl Wente bought 49 acres in Livermore and started a
winery.
(SFC, 9/27/96, p.E3)(SFC, 12/19/02, p.D4)
1883 In Chile the Concha y Toro
wineries were founded with vines brought from France.
(SFEC, 10/27/96, p.T9)
1885 In California the Far
Niente winery was built in Napa Valley. In 2008 it was among the a
maverick group of local wineries to embrace solar power.
(SFC, 5/29/08, p.A1)
1886 The three Korbel brothers
built a lumber mill in Guerneville, California. The mill prospered
logging redwoods and specialized in fancy moldings used in many of
the Victorian homes of San Francisco. The property was acquired by
the Heck family in 1954 who began producing sparkling wines.
(SFC, 4/9/96, zz1 p.3)
1887 Nov 8, Doc Holliday, who
fought on the side of the Earp brothers during the Gunfight at the
O.K. Corral sixty years earlier, died of tuberculosis after waking
from a 57 day delirium in Glenwood Springs, Colo. He downed a glass
of whiskey and said: "I’ll be damned!" and died. In 2001 Bruce Olds
authored the novel "Bucking the Tiger," based on the life of
Holliday.
(HN, 11/6/98)(MesWP)(SFC, 7/29/00, p.E3)(SSFC,
9/9/01, DB p.70)
1888 In Mexico the Santo Tomas
Winery was founded near Ensenada.
(SFC, 9/27/96, p.E3)
1891 Montaudon, a French
champagne maker, began operations. In 2008 it was acquired by LVMH,
a luxury goods conglomerate.
(Econ, 8/22/09,
p.59)(www.champagnemontaudon.com/uk/home_uk.html)
1893 Samuele Sebastiani arrived
in California from Tuscany. By 1904 he saved up enough money to buy
a winery in Sonoma.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.D4)
1895 Edoardo Seghesio planted
his 1st vineyard in the Alexander Valley of northern California.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.D4)
1896 Sep 24, American author F.
Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 24,
1896. He wrote about the "Jazz Age" between World War I and World
War II. He published his first novel in 1920, "This Side of
Paradise," and gained instant acclaim and celebrity, marrying Zelda
Sayre shortly afterward. In 1924, Fitzgerald wrote what has become
his best-known novel, "The Great Gatsby." Although it was not
especially popular at the time, as more readers began to appreciate
the novel for its perspective of how materialism drives people, it
became an American classic. As years passed, Fitzgerald battled
alcoholism and his wife sought treatment for her mental illness. He
died in Hollywood at age 45 in 1940. "If you're strong enough, there
are no precedents."
(HFA, ‘96, p.38)(AP, 9/24/97)(HNPD, 9/24/98)(HN,
9/24/98)(AP, 8/16/99)
1896 Giovanni Foppiano founded
Foppiano Vineyards in Sonoma, Ca.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.D4)(SSFC, 5/23/10, p.L3)
1898 Frederick Hess, publisher
of the German-language California Democrat, built a stone winery on
Howell Mountain in Napa Valley. He named it La Jota Vineyard after
Rancho la Jota, the Spanish land grant on which it was situated.
(SFC, 11/10/05, p.F3)
1900 Frenchman Georges de
Latour founded Beaulieu Vineyard near Rutherford in Napa Valley Ca.
(SFC, 10/10/08, p.F3)
c1900 Florida’s wineries were
wiped out by Pierce’s disease. Growers then switched to orange
trees.
(SFC,11/22/97, p.D4)
1901 Nov 24, Andre Victor
Tchelistcheff, winemaker, was born.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1901 Battista Bianco, the
mother Giuseppe and Mike Gallo’s father, founded the Bianco Winery
Company in California.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.D1)
1902 Apr 13, Philippe de
Rothschild, manager (Bordeaux Vineyard), was born in Paris.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1904 Samuele Sebastiani
purchased a winery in Sonoma, Ca.
(WSJ, 4/16/97, p.CA1)
1906 Giuseppe and Mike Gallo
founded the Gallo Wine Company in California.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.D1)
1906 The Pagani Brothers
established a winery in Sonoma, Ca. In 1970 the Lee family opened
Kenwood Vineyards on the site. Some of the Kenwood grapes came from
vineyards on Jack London’s original ranch in Glen Ellen.
(SFC, 11/2/07, p.F3)
1906 Ex-Lax, the laxative, was
first sold. Its main ingredient, phenolphthalein, was later found to
be a cancer risk and it was yanked from the shelves in 1997. The
laxative qualities of the chemical were thought to be first
discovered accidentally by Hungarians in 1902 who considered using
it as an additive in wine.
(WSJ, 9/26/97, p.A1)
1908 Beaulieu Vineyard in Napa
Valley inked a long term contract to provide altar wine to the
Catholic archdiocese of San Francisco.
(SFC, 10/10/08, p.F3)
1910 In SF William T. “Cocktail
Bill” Boothby (d.1930), devised his Boothby cocktail at the Palace
Hotel. It was essentially a Manhattan with a Champagne float.
(SFC, 12/14/07, p.F2)
1913 Jun 18, Robert Mondavi was
born in the mining town of Virginia, Minn. The family moved to
California in 1921 and went into the grape business in Lodi.
(SFC, 6/18/03, p.A16)
1913 Jack London settled in
Glen Ellen, California. His book "Valley of the Moon" described the
local area. He built a model farm in the Glen Ellen hillsides and
called it Beauty Ranch. the property included a man-made lake,
blacksmith shop, cooperage, winery, barns, silos, bath-houses, and a
deluxe pig sty. A magnificent mansion called Wolf House was to crown
the ranch but it burned down just before he moved in.
(WCG, p.68)
1913 In Denmark the bronze
statue of the Little Mermaid, a character from a Hans Christian
Anderson story, was installed in the harbor. It was commissioned by
Carl Jacobsen, founder of the Carlsberg Beer Co., and created by
Edvard Eriksen. [see 1964]
(SFC,11/5/97, p.C2)
1914 US Navy Secretary Josephus
Daniels substituted grape juice for the daily rum ration.
(SFEC, 4/20/97, Z1 p.5)
1916 Nov 3, On the Baltic off
of Finland a German U-boat under Captain Bruno Hoppe ordered Captain
E.B. Eriksson of the Swedish schooner Junketing to halt for an
inspection. Beverages headed for the Russians were discovered and
the ship was evacuated and sunk. In 1998 some 1,000 bottles of 1907
Headpiece Monopole champagne were recovered, of which 500 were
preserved in drinking condition. Hoppe later sank the schooner Aker.
The 66-ton Junketing was sunk in the Baltic Sea by a German U-boat.
It carried 44 creates of champagne, 67 barrels of cognac, and 17
barrels of port wine intended for the Russian army. Divers planned
to recover the cargo in 1998.
(SFC, 7/11/98, p.A14)(SFC, 9/21/98, p.A19)(AP,
9/21/98)
1916 Nov 16, French
adjutant-chief Eugene Rouges died with several of his men when a
German artillery shell exploded in their trench in Gradesnica,
Macedonia. In the 1990s villagers began finding a liquid fortune in
vintage cognac buried in the old trenches.
(AP, 7/23/07)
1916 Dec 16, Gregory
Rasputin (45), the Russian monk and confidant to Czarina
Alexandra, was assassinated by Prince Yussoupov. The monk who had
wielded powerful influence over the Russian court, was murdered by a
group of noblemen. He was fed cakes and wine laced with cyanide,
then shot a number of times and finally drowned. A TV version of his
story was made for HBO in 1996. [see Dec 30]
(WSJ, 3/25/96, p.A-15)(AP, 12/16/97)
1916 Dec 30, Grigory Yefimovich
Rasputin drowned when he was thrown through a hole in the ice of the
Neva River. When Rasputin was introduced to the Russian royal family
in 1905, he demonstrated an ability to heal the royal son Alexis and
was then welcomed into the family circle. Rasputin was considered a
holy peasant, but his belief that sinning was necessary for
salvation led him to seduce women and other scandalous behavior. A
conspiracy, believing Rasputin had too much influence on the
empress, formed to assassinate him, and on the night of December
29-30, they poisoned his wine--but he did not die. They shot him
twice, but when he still refused to die, they drowned him. [see Dec
16]
(HNPD, 12/30/98)
1917 The Seelbach Cocktail was
created at the Seelbach hotel in Louisville, Ky. The recipe was
later lost until 1995 when a hotel manager rediscovered the formula.
(SFC, 7/28/05, p.F6)
1918 Jan 8,
Mississippi became the first state to ratify the proposed 18th
amendment to the US Constitution, which established Prohibition.
(AP, 1/8/08)
1919 Jan 13, California
voted to ratify the Prohibition amendment.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1919 Jan 16, Prohibition
became law in the US with the passage of the Volstead Act, which
enforced and defined the 18thAmendment. It was passed over President
Wilson's veto with the necessary two-thirds majority of state
ratification. [see Jan 16,1920]
(HFA, '96, p.22)(WUD, 1994, p.1681)(WSJ,8/22/96,
p.A14)(MC, 1/16/02)
1919 Jan 16, Nebraska, Wyoming
and Missouri became the 36th, 37th and 38th states to ratify
Prohibition, which went into effect a year later. Prohibition became
law in the US with the passage of the Volstead Act on Oct 28, which
enforced and defined the 18th Amendment. It was passed over
President Wilson's veto with the necessary two-thirds majority of
state ratification.
(WSJ, 8/22/96, p.A14)(AP, 1/16/98)
1919 Oct 8, The U.S. Senate and
House of Representatives passed the Volstead Prohibition Enforcement
Bill. It was named for Representative Andrew Volstead of Minnesota
and enforced the ban on the sale or consumption of alcoholic
beverages. This rang in the era of prohibition.
(HN, 10/8/98)(MC, 10/8/01)
1919 Oct 26, President Wilson's
veto of Prohibition Enforcement Bill was overridden.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1920 Jan 16, Prohibition began
as the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took effect. It was
later repealed by the 21st Amendment. Alcohol was outlawed in the US
with the passage of the 18th amendment. It was made law on Jan
16,1919, but became effective on this day. At the time US
authorities expected few violations of the new law. Over the next
fourteen years, Prohibition corrupted all levels of society, swamped
the judiciary, killed thousands of people, and gave rise to
underworld syndicates that still exist.
(www.browardpalmbeach.com/1997-12-04/news/the-gallows-and-the-deep/)(AP,
1/16/98)(SFC, 4/7/96, p.B-11)
1921 Nov 23, President Harding
signed the Willis Campell Act, better known as the anti-beer bill.
It forbade doctors to prescribe beer or liquor for medicinal
purposes.
(HN, 11/23/98)
1921 Dec 6, James Showan, a
wealthy NY shipbuilder, was arrested after his palatial yacht was
seized off the California coast with more than 100 cases of whiskey.
(SFC, 10/14/99, p.C5)
1922 Louis M. Martini founded
the L. M. Martini Grape Products Co. in Kingsburg, Fresno Ct.,
California, to sell grape juice, concentrates, sacramental and
medicinal wines.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.D1)
1923 Nov 4, Alfred Heineken,
beer brewer, was born.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1923 Nov 8, Adolf
Schicklgruber (Hitler) launched his first attempt to seize power
with a failed coup in Munich, Germany, that came to be known as the
Beer-Hall Putsch. He proclaimed himself chancellor and Ludendorff
dictator. After the unsuccessful beerhall putsch, he wound up in
jail writing "Mein Kampf." Mein Kampf, was sub-titled Four-and-Half
Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice. The Nazi
dictator wrote much of Mein Kampf (My Struggle) while in prison in
1923 and 1924 for attempting to overthrow the German government. The
work became the bible of the Nazi Party and a blueprint for the
Third Reich.
(TMC, 1994, p.1923)(AP, 11/8/97)(HN,
11/6/98)(HNQ, 5/5/99)
1924 Apr 1, Adolf Hitler was
sentenced to five years in prison for "Beer Hall Putsch." Gen
Ludendorff was acquitted for leading the botched Nazi's "Beer Hall
Putsch" in the German state of Bavaria
(HN, 4/1/98)(MC, 4/1/02)
1926 Mar, A nationwide
poll on prohibition showed that people favored a modification of the
Volstead Act by a margin of 9 to 1.
(SFC, 3/16/01, WBb p.4)
1927 Nov 2, In San Francisco
prohibition agents raided a brewery at 1407 San Bruno Ave. with
nearly 2,000 gallons of beer brewing in 4 500-gallon vats.
(SFC, 11/1/02, p.E7)
1927 Dock Boggs, singer and
banjo player, released his "Country Blues" swamp music album. It
included the song "Old Rub Alcohol Blues."
(SFEM, 3/22/98, p.8)
1927 French law set the
boundaries of the country’s Champagne region.
(WSJ, 8/12/05, p.B1)
1928 May 2, In Emeryville, Ca.,
a raid on a brewery next door to the home of Police Chief Ed. J.
Carey uncovered 5,000 gallons of unbottled beer and 3,000 bottles of
beer. Jimmy Reese, star 2nd baseman of the Oakland Coast League and
son-in-law of Chief Carey, emerged from a cottage in front of the
warehouse and demanded to know what the raid was about. Alameda Ct.
DA Earl Warren filed a federal complaint against Carey.
(SFC, 5/2/03, p.E3)
1929 Feb 14, In Chicago the
"St. Valentine's Day Massacre" took place in a garage of the Moran
gang as seven rivals of Al Capone's gang were gunned down. Police
found seven men shot to death in a North Chicago garage. With the
exception of one, the men were working under George "Bugs" Moran, a
well-known bootlegger and gangster, and staunch rival of Al
"Scarface" Capone. Members of Capone’s gang lured the victims into
the garage under the guise of selling cheap alcohol. Then two of
Capone’s men, dressed up as police officers, staged a raid.
Believing them to be real, Moran’s outfit turned over its weapons,
turned to face the wall and waited for the arrest. It was at that
point that the hit on Moran’s men took place. Neighbors heard the
gunfire, but assumed the police were involved when Capone’s costumed
officers escorted the gunmen outside and together, they all fled the
scene.
(TMC, 1994, p.1929)(AP, 2/14/98)(HNQ, 2/14/02)
1930 Jul 29, The US Coast Guard
towed the Canadian rum-runner Ray Roberts into SF with a cargo of
1,050 cases of whiskey.
(SFC, 7/29/05, p.F7)
1930 In Lebanon the Musar
vineyard was founded.
(SFC, 1/11/08, p.F4)
1930 In Mexico Pres. Pascual
Ortiz Rubio was wounded in an assassination attempt the day he took
office. From this point till 2000 the sale and public display of
alcoholic beverages were banned during patriotic events.
(SFC, 9/16/00, p.A14)
1930s Adolph Parducci founded
his winery in Ukiah, Ca. The family sold the business in 1972. In
2004 it was bought by the Mendocino Wine Co.
(SFEM, 10/27/96, p.40)(SFC, 9/8/06, p.F4)
1933 Feb 17, US Senate
accepted the Blaine Act ending prohibition.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1933 Feb 20, The House
of Representatives completed congressional action on an amendment to
repeal Prohibition. [see Apr 7]
(AP, 2/20/98)
1933 Feb, The US Congress
passed the 21st amendment to repeal the 18th amendment, which
outlawed alcohol.
(SFC, 4/7/96, p.B-11)
1933 Mar 22, During
Prohibition, President Roosevelt signed a measure to make wine &
beer containing up to 3.2 percent alcohol legal. [see Feb 20, Apr 7,
Dec 5]
(AP, 3/22/97)(HN, 3/22/97)
1933 Apr 7, "Near beer" (3.2
beer) became legal after FDR signed an amendment to the Volstead
Act, which had made drinking alcohol a federal crime. Prohibition
ended when Utah became the 38th state to ratify 21st
Amendment. [see Dec 5]
(SFC, 4/7/96, p.B-11)(HN, 4/7/97)(MC, 4/7/02)
1933 Dec 5, Prohibition was
repealed--much to the delight of thirsty revelers--when Utah became
the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution. The nationwide prohibition of the manufacture, sale or
transportation of alcoholic beverages was established in January
1919 with passage of the 18th Amendment. Prohibition's supporters
gradually became disenchanted with it as the illegal manufacture and
sale of liquor fostered a wave of criminal activity. By 1932, the
Democratic Party's platform called for the repeal of Prohibition. In
February 1933, Congress adopted a resolution proposing the 21st
Amendment to repeal the 18th and with Utah's vote in December,
Prohibition ended. Three-quarters of the states approved the repeal
of the 18th amendment and FDR proclaimed the end of Prohibition.
(SFC, 4/7/96, p.B-11)(AP, 12/5/97)(HNPD, 12/5/98)
1933 Ernst and Julio Gallo
founded the Gallo winery in Modesto, Ca.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.B3)
1935 Jan 24, The 1st canned
beer, "Krueger Cream Ale," was sold by Krueger Brewing Co.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1935 May 12, Alcoholics
Anonymous is founded in Akron, Ohio by "Bill W.," a stockbroker, and
"Dr. Bob S.," a heart surgeon. [see June 10]
(HN, 5/12/01)
1935 Brother Timothy FSC
(1910-2004) was transferred to Mont La Salle to become the wine
chemist for Christian Brothers.
(SFC, 12/3/04, p.B7)
1935 France passed a set of
laws known as Appellation d’Origine Controlee (controlled place of
origin). The AOC laws were meant to protect growers and properly
identify a wine’s origin. They were not intended as an indicator of
quality.
(SFC, 1/8/97, zz-1 p.4)
1937 Jul 2, Amelia Earhart and
navigator Fred Noonan left Lae in Papua, New Guinea and disappeared
over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first
round-the-world flight at the equator. The two had set out in
Earhart's twin-engine Lockheed Electra, taking off from Oakland,
Calif., for Miami on May 21. They flew across the Atlantic from
Brazil to Africa, then reached Calcutta on June 17, having made 15
stops thus far. They failed to arrive at their scheduled stop at
Howland Island. Radio operators received messages from Earhart
saying that they had to be close and were circling, searching for
land, but radio contact was lost and the two were never heard from
again. Noonan was alcoholic and had been on a binge the night
before. Radioman Leo Bellarts was the last person to communicate
with Earhart. Errors from the US Coast Guard cutter Itasca were
later identified as contributing to the disappearance.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.A8) (SFC, 5/20/97, p.A12) (AP,
7/2/97) (SFEC, 7/6/97, p.B10) (HNPD, 7/2/99)(SFC, 7/1/00, p.A1,11)
1938 Aug 16, Robert Johnson
(27), bluesman, musician and king of the Mississippi Delta blues,
died 3 days after ingesting whiskey laced with poison (probably
strychnine). He has 2 grave sites around Morgan City. Columbia
Records issued the first Robert Johnson LP in 1961 titled "King of
the Delta Blues Singers" and "Robert Johnson: The Complete
Recordings" in 1990. His music is on "The Complete Plantation
Recordings" (Chess/MCA). Peter Guralnick later wrote his biography.
His tunes included "Love in Vain," "Cross Road Blues" and "Ramblin
on My Mind." In 1998 the video documentary "Can’t You Hear the Wind
Howl? The Life and Music of Robert Johnson" was released. In 1999
Robert Mugge premiered his film "Hellhounds On My Trail: The
Afterlife of Robert Johnson."
(HT, 5/97, p.41)(NH, 9/96, p.54)(HT, 5/97,
p.41)(SFC, 9/23/98, p.E3)(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.W12)(SFEM, 9/26/99, p.12)
1938 Georges de Latour, owner
of Beaulieu Vineyard in Napa Valley, Ca., hired French-trained
enologist Andre Tchelistcheff to oversee the maturation of his
Private Reserve.
(SFC, 10/10/08, p.F3)
1940 Georges de Latour, owner
of Beaulieu Vineyard in Napa Valley, Ca., died. BV Burgundy was
renamed by his wife and released as Georges de Latour Private
Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, California’s first private reserve
Cabernet Sauvignon.
(SFC, 10/10/08, p.F3)
1941 Liebmann Brewery, maker of
Rheingold Beer, began promoting the beer with pictures of model Jinx
Falkenburg (d.2003 at 84), a Chilean-born actress and tennis player.
(SFC, 7/4/03, p.A25)(SFC, 8/29/03, p.A28)
1943 In California Cesare
Mondavi purchased the Charles Krug winery in Napa Valley and began
making wine with his sons Robert and Peter. Robert Mondavi
(1913-2008) persuaded his parents to buy Charles Krug Winery. Robert
became the salesman and his brother Peter the winemaker.
(USAT, 6/17/98, p.2D)(SFC, 5/17/08, p.A7)
1944 Armand Hammer was granted
a unique license to produce beverage alcohol by the Roosevelt
administration due to its short wartime supply.
(SFC, 1/17/97, p.D7)
1945 Feb 10, "Rum & Coca
Cola" by the Andrews Sisters hit #1.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1947 Jul 4, "Wino Willie"
Forkner (d.1997) led his South Central LA Boozefighters
motorcyclists to Hollister for a weekend of beer-drenched fun. They
were all veterans of WW II. He was said to have been the model for
Marlon Brando in the film "The Wild One." 3,000 motorcyclists
spilled over into Hollister from a nearby racetrack. [see Jul 7]
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A17)(SFEC, 6/29/97, p.A1)
1948 Michigan passed a law that
prohibited women from serving alcoholic drinks in bars. In was
overturned by a 1971 Supreme Court decision on an Idaho case that
showed discrimination against one gender.
(SFC, 10/12/02, p.A21)
1949 The US Govt. defined
generic vodka as a neutral spirit reduced to between 110 and 80
proof and treated so as to be without distinctive character.
(WSJ, 11/7/95, p.A-1)
1951 In Lebanon Kefraya opened
its first vineyard
(SFC, 1/11/08, p.F4)
1952 Nov 19, The California
Wine Institute reported shipments of 11 million gallons for
September, a 22.71% increase over Sep, 1951.
(SFC, 11/15/02, p.E2)
1953 Robert F. Borkenstein
(d.2002) invented a Breathalyzer to test drivers for alcohol
content. It stemmed from his work with Dr. R.N. Harger of the
Indiana School of Medicine to make the Drunkometer.
(SFC, 8/19/02, p.B6)
1953 On the Isle of Alonissos,
Greece, diseased grape vines imported from California wiped out the
local wine industry.
(SSFC, 3/14/04, p.D6)
1954 Feb 27, The Korbel
property in Guerneville, California, was acquired by Adolf and Paul
Heck of St. Louis, who began producing sparkling wines.
(SFC, 4/9/96, zz1 p.3)(SFC, 2/27/04, p.E6)
1957 The Italian Swiss Colony
winery at Asti, Ca., was deemed a state historical landmark.
(SSFC, 5/31/09, p.E6)
1959 Hewitt Crane (d.2008 at
81), inventor and bioengineering pioneer, co-founded Ridge
Vineyards, resurrecting a 19th century winery in Cupertino, Ca.
(SFC, 6/26/08, p.B5)
1960 Feb 9, The Angelo Petri,
the world’s largest wine tanker, foundered outside the Golden Gate.
It carried a capacity load of 2,383,000 gallons of wine and
vegetable oil. In 1946 the vessel had broken in two near Honolulu.
(SSFC, 2/7/10, DB p.42)
1961 Rodney Strong (d.2006),
dancer-turned winemaker, purchased a 160-acre vineyard in
Healdsburg, Ca. He started Sonoma Vineyards and later renamed it
Rodney Strong Vineyards.
(SFC, 3/7/06, p.B5)
1962 In France a museum was
added to the Chateau Mouton Rothschild. It housed a priceless
collection of artwork related to wine.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T4)
1963 Jan 11, The 1st
discotheque opened, Whiskey-a-go-go in LA.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1964 The "Encyclopedia of Wine"
by Frank Schoonmaker was 1st published.
(WSJ, 6/20/03, p.W8)
1965 David Lett (d.2008 at 69)
began Eyrie Vineyards in the Dundee Hills of Oregon with some 3,000
baby vines of the Pinot Noir grape. His 1975 vintage ranked among
the top 10 at a prestigious Paris tasting in 1979.
(SSFC, 10/12/08, p.B6)
1965 Jack Spicer (40), poet,
died of alcohol poisoning. The "Collected Book of Jack Spicer" was
published nearly 10 years after his death. In 1998 Lewis Ellingham
and Kevin Killian published "Poet Be Like God: Jack Spicer and the
San Francisco Renaissance. "The House That Jack Built: the Collected
Lectures of Jack Spicer was also published in 1998 with an afterward
by Peter Gizzi.
(SFEC, 1/3/99, BR p.3)
1966 Robert Mondavi and his son
Michael started the Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville, the first new
winery in California since Prohibition. Mondavi had left the Charles
Krug Winery in 1965 following a dispute with relatives.
(USAT, 6/17/98, p.2D)(SSFC, 4/29/01, p.E7)
1967 Chuck Carpy (1928-1996)
founded the Freemark Abbey Winery in Napa Valley. He later founded
Rutherford Hill Winery (1976) and the Napa Valley Bank (1982).
(SFC, 8/21/96, p.A20)
1967 Italy passed a set of
labeling laws similar to the French 1935 Appellation d’Origine
Controlee (controlled place of origin). The AOC laws were meant to
protect growers and properly identify a wine’s origin. They were not
intended as an indicator of quality. The Italian DOC laws
(Denominazione di Origine Controllata) regulated grape growing zones
and wine production practices.
(SFC, 1/8/96, zz-1 p.4)(SFC, 6/30/99, Z1 p.6)
1968 Al Brounstein (d.2006 at
86) purchased 80 acres on Diamond Mountain in Napa, Ca., for a
little over $100,000. He began developing a vineyard and later
admitted to smuggling cuttings from Bordeaux, France, by way of
Tijuana. His first crop from Diamond Creek Vineyards was produced in
1972.
(SFC, 6/28/06, p.B7)
1968 Robert Mondavi made a dry
wine from Sauvignon Blanc and renamed it Fume Blanc.
(SFC, 5/17/08, p.A7)
1969 Oct 21, Jack Kerouac (47),
Beat Generation chronicler, died of alcoholism in St. Petersburg,
Fla. He wrote "On the Road," "Desolation Angels," "Vanity of
Duluoz," and "Dharma Bums." Japhy Ryder the Zen hobo-poet in the
book was modeled after poet Gary Snyder. In 1979 Dennis McNally
authored the biography "Desolate Angel." In 1998 Ellis Amburn
published "Subterranean Kerouac: The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac."
In 1999 Barry Miles published "Jack Kerouac, King of the Beats: A
Portrait."
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A22)(SFC, 9/1/96, DB p.30)(SFEC,
5/31/98, p.A17)(SFEC, 8/9/98, BR 9 p.3)(SFEC, 1/17/99, BR p.3)(SSFC,
8/11/02, p.M1)
1969 Family owners sold
California’s Beaulieu Vineyards to Heublein Inc.
(SFC, 10/10/08, p.F3)
1969 Filippo Casella began
making wine in Australia after having moved from Italy. Casella
Wines introduced their Yellow Tail brand in 2001.
(SFC, 1/5/06, p.F2)
1969 Germany passed a set of
labeling laws similar to the French 1935 Appellation d’Origine
Controlee (controlled place of origin). The AOC laws were meant to
protect growers and properly identify a wine’s origin. They were not
intended as an indicator of quality.
(SFC, 1/8/97, zz-1 p.4)
1970 Warren Winiarski and
investors purchased an orchard next to Nathan Fay’s vineyard in Napa
County, Ca., and began planting what would become Stag’s Leap Wine
Cellars. His 1973 grapes became the Cabernet Sauvignon that won the
famous 1976 tasting in Paris.
(SFC, 1/5/06, p.F5)(SFC, 3/28/08, p.F4)
1971 Jun 1, Reinhold Niebuhr
(b.1892), US theologist (Nature & Destiny of Man), died. His
Serenity Prayer became widely used by Alcoholics Anonymous: "God,
give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be
changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and
the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."
(MC, 6/1/02)(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.F2)
1971 Alexis Bespaloff authored
“The Signet Book of Wine” (paperback).
(WSJ, 5/28/04, p.W7)
1972 Jan 23, A bootlegger sold
wood alcohol to a wedding party in New Delhi and 100 people died.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1972 Feb 21, Pres. Nixon began
his visit to China as he and his wife arrived in Shanghai. He was
the 1st US president to visit a country not diplomatically
recognized by the US. He brought along a bottle of Schramsberg
sparkling wine from California.
(HN, 2/21/01)(AP, 2/21/04)(WSJ, 7/1/05, p.W6)
1972 Frank J. Prial began his
“Wine Talk” column for the NY Times. His regular articles ended in
2005.
(WSJ, 7/1/05, p.W6)
1972 California released its
1st Merlot labeled wine.
(WSJ, 2/20/04, p.W4)
1972 Kermit Lynch opened Kermit
Lynch Wine Merchant in Berkeley, Ca. He focused on importing
small-production French wines. In 2005 the French government
announced that he would be awarded the insignia of Chevalier de la
Legion d’Honeur.
(SFC, 12/22/05, p.F5)
1973 Fall, Cesar Chavez called
an end to the UFW grape strike. A nationwide boycott of California’s
non-union grapes, lettuce and Gallo wines was stepped up.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.8)
1973 Bib Trinchero of Sutter
Home Winery in St. Helena released the 1st White Zinfandel as "Oeil
de Perdrix" (Eye of the Partridge).
(SFC, 7/3/03, p.D2)
1973 Peter Newton (1926-2008),
founder of the Sterling Int’l. paper company, opened up the new
Sterling winery on a hilltop overlooking Napa Valley. Visitors
required a tram ride to reach it. In 1979 he sold Sterling to
Coca-Cola and began developing Newton Vineyard.
(SFC, 2/9/08, p.B3)
1973 French wines were
re-ranked according to taste, rather than price, and Mouton
Rothschild was elevated to the first rank.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T4)
1973 Bordeaux wine producer
Mouton was elevated to "first growth" status.
(WSJ, 4/23/04, p.W5)
1973 Montana Wines introduced
grapevines to the Marlborough region of New Zealand pushing out the
garlic that had been the area’s hallmark crop.
(SFC, 4/11/08, p.F4)
1974 Dr. Charles Lieber at the
VA Medical Center in the Bronx, NY, fed alcohol to baboons along
with a nutritionally complete diet. He found that the animals
developed every stage of human alcoholic liver disease.
(SSFC, 8/23/09, p.K6)
1975 Jun 5, Gov. Jerry Brown of
California announced the new Agricultural Labor Relations Act. It
was a temporary truce in the struggle between the state’s farm
workers (UFW) led by Cesar Chavez and farmers. Chavez officially
ended the table grape, lettuce and wine boycott on Jan 31, 1978.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.22)(SFC, 1/31/03, p.E4)
1975 In France Ricard merged
with Pernod, another French maker of the pastis aperitif.
(Econ, 11/12/05, p.66)
1975 It was a good year for
Burgundy wines made from the Pinot Noir grapes of Oregon. In 1979
David Lett’s vintage from this year ranked among the top 10 at a
prestigious Paris tasting. Lett (d.2008 at 69) had introduced Pinot
Noir to Oregon in 1965.
(SFC, 8/28/96, zz-1 p.4)(SSFC, 10/12/08, p.B6)
1976 May 24, In France 2
California wines won a tasting event over several French classics
for the 1st time. Stephen Spurrier, English owner of a wine shop and
wine school in Paris, held a competition tasting of French and
American wines. The best white wine was a 1973 Napa Valley
Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena. The best red wine was a 1973
Cabernet Sauvignon from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. Winemaker Miljenko
Grgich created the Napa Chardonnay that beat French wines in the
legendary Paris Tasting. In 2005 George M. Taber authored “Judgement
of Paris,” an account of the 1976 tasting.
(SFC, 5/29/96, ZZ1 p.4)(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.T8)(WSJ,
5/24/01, p.A20)(SFC, 6/16/05, p.F4)
1976 Sep 4, George W. Bush
(30), candidate for US president in 2000, was arrested and pleaded
guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol in Kennebunkport,
Maine.
(SFC, 11/3/00, p.A1)
1976 Geologist Tom Jordon
completed his castle-style Jordan Estate winery in Healdsburg, Ca.
It was styled after the 18th century French Chateau Margaux.
(SSFC, 11/22/09, p.N6)
1976 Ravenswood Winery was
founded in Sonoma, Ca., and went public in 1999. In 2001 it was sold
to New York’s Constellation Brands for $148 million.
(SFC, 4/12/01, p.B6)
1978 Francis Ford Coppola
purchased the Niebaum winery and estate in Rutherford from the van
Loben Selses.
(SFC, 6/18/03, p.A23)
1978 Joseph Phelps in
California made a new red wine blend called Meritage from a blend of
traditional Bordeaux grapes.
(SFC, 10/2/96, zz1
p.4)(http://tinyurl.com/2q56ok)
1979 In California the Fritz
Underground Winery was dug into a remote hillside of Dry Creek
Valley on the edge of Cloverdale. Jay and Barbara Fritz had
purchased their 112-acre property in 1970 as a weekend retreat.
(SSFC, 11/8/09, p.M4)
1980 Jan 23, A rolling
earthquake hit northern California and measured 5.5 in Contra Costa.
It destroyed 25,000 gallons of wine at the Livermore winery of Wente
Brothers.
(SFC, 1/21/05, p.F2)
1980 Aug 14, It was reported
that France’s Moet-Hennessy is buying Schieffelin & Co., its New
York based US distributor. The deal also included the Simi Winery in
Healdsburg, Ca.
(SFC, 8/12/05, p.F3)
1980 Oct 15, An FTC judge
upheld Heublein’s acquisition of SF-based United Vintners, the 2nd
largest wine company in the US.
(SFC, 10/14/05, p.F2)
1981 Scharffenberger Cellars in
Mendocino, Ca., was founded by John Scharffenberger. He sold the
winery to Veuve Cliquot of France in 1996 and went into the
chocolate business.
(SFEM,10/26/97, p.21)
1982 In northern California
Jess Jackson (b.1930), real estate lawyer and grape grower, decided
to make his own wine and soon produced a batch of blended chardonney
grapes called Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay. The wine
got an award and sold out in six weeks.
(AP,
7/4/09)(www.wineanorak.com/california/kendalljackson.htm)
1983 Nov 9, Alfred Heineken,
beer brewer from Amsterdam, was kidnapped and held for a ransom of
more than $10 million.
(HN, 11/9/98)
1983 Nov 30, Police freed
kidnapped beer magnate Alfred Heineken in Amsterdam.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1983 A couple of Canadian
vineyards began producing ice wine, a 1794 German invention
(eiswein), using frost-bitten grapes to produce a desert wine.
(Econ, 5/22/04, p.32)(http://wine.about.com)
1984 Maynard Amerine (d.1998 at
74) published the "Univ. of California / Sotheby Book of California
Wine." It was co-edited with Bob Thompson and Doris Muscatine. Mr.
Amerine also wrote "Table Wines: The Technology of their
Production," with M.A. Joslyn.
(SFC, 3/13/98, p.D2)
1984 The Walla Walla Valley
wine appellation in Washington state was established.
(Econ, 5/20/06, p.37)
1984 The Japanese firm Suntory
purchased the Chateau St. Jean winery in Sonoma, Calif. They sold it
in 1996.
(WSJ, 8/12/96, p.A4)
1985 Dec 5, Christie’s
auctioned a bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite Bordeaux, thought to have
once been part of Thomas Jefferson’s cellar, and part of a cache
said to have been recently unearthed from a Paris house by German
pop band manager Hardy Rodenstock. Lot 337 sold for $156,000 on a
bid by Kip Murdoch, bidding for his father Malcolm Forbes. In 2006
Bill Koch of Florida, who purchased 4 bottles of alleged Jefferson
wine in 1987, sued Rodenstock for fraud. In 2008 Benjamin Wallace
authored “The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most
Expensive Bottle of Wine.
(Econ, 5/10/08, p.95)
1985 The Huadong Winery opened
northeast of Qingdao on Mount Leoshan under British interests.
(SFEC, 2/6/00, p.T13)
1985 Cloudy Bay, a New Zealand
wine maker, began exporting Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc to the US.
(SFC, 4/11/08, p.F1)
1986 Jul, US Federal rules took
effect that barred wines from using geographic names unless the
grapes come from that region. Winemakers were allowed to continue to
use brands approved prior to this date.
(SFC, 1/24/06, p.E1)
1986 Stephen Spurrier, English
owner of a wine shop and wine school in Paris, held another
competition tasting of French and American wines following his 1976
event in New York City. This time only red wines were tasted and the
same reds were used except for the Freemark Abbey wine. The American
wines placed first and second: Clos du Val (1972) came in first and
Ridge Vineyards (1971) came in second.
(SFC, 5/29/96, ZZ1 p.4)
1987 Jul 8, Kitty Dukakis, wife
of Massachusetts governor and Democratic presidential candidate
Michael S. Dukakis, revealed she'd been addicted to amphetamines for
26 years but had sought help and was drug-free. She later admitted
to dependence on alcohol, and entered a recovery program.
(AP 7/8/97)
1987 William Koch of Germany
paid some $500,000 for 4 bottles of French wine said to have been
discovered in Paris in 1985 and allegedly once owned by Thomas
Jefferson. By 2006 Koch’s investigations led him to believe they
were fakes, which he attributed to Hardy Rodenstock (born as
Meinhard Goerke), a German collector and dealer.
(WSJ, 9/1/06, p.A1)
1988 Jan 20, Philippe de
Rothschild (b.1902), Bordeaux Vineyard manager, died in Paris.
(www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Philippe_de_Rothschild)
1988 The Sonoma Creek Winery
was founded near Sonoma, California.
(SFC, 4/9/96, z1 p.7)
1989 Feb 26, Defense
Secretary-designate John Tower, dogged by questions about a possible
drinking problem, publicly pledged not to drink any alcohol during
his term of office if confirmed by the Senate.
(AP, 2/26/99)
1989 Mar 30, "The Heidi
Chronicles" by Wendy Wasserstein won the Pulitzer Prize for drama;
in the journalism category, the Anchorage Daily News won the public
service award for its reports on alcoholism and suicide among native
Alaskans.
(AP, 3/30/99)
1989 Apr 14, Former winery
worker Ramon Salcido killed 6 relatives, including his wife and
daughters, and a co-worker in Sonoma County. He was tried and
convicted in Oct. 1990 by Judge Littrell (d.1997) and sentenced to
death. In 1997 Salcedo was still on death row with his case in the
appeal process.
(SFC, 1/31/97, p.E2)(AP, 4/14/99)
1989 Apr 20, Ramon Salcido, a
California winery worker later convicted of killing six relatives
and a co-worker, was deported from Mexico to the U.S.
(AP, 4/20/99)
1989 Nov 6, Kitty Dukakis, wife
of Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, was hospitalized after
ingesting rubbing alcohol.
(AP, 11/6/99)
1989 Michael Dorris (d.1997 at
52), a Modoc Indian descendent, won the National Book Critics Circle
Award for his work: "The Broken Cord." It described the problem of
fetal alcohol syndrome.
(SFC, 4/15/97, p.A2)
1989 In California the Hess
Collection in Napa opened as a combination winery and modern art
museum. Donald Hess, a Swiss water wizard, had acquired the former
Theodore Gier Winery in the 1970s.
(SFEC, 2/22/98, p.T5)
1989 Tom Klein acquired Rodney
Strong Vineyards from Guinness Corp. Klein retained Rodney Strong as
a brand representative.
(SFC, 3/7/06, p.B5)
1989 Pernod Ricard SA acquired
the Australian wine brand Jacob’s Creek.
(WSJ, 9/7/05, p.B2)
1990 John O’Brien (d.1994)
published his novel "Leaving Las Vegas." It was made into a 1995
film and was the semi-autobiographical account about an alcoholic
who goes to Las Vegas to drink himself to death.
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.B4)
1990 Volcano Winery was founded
on Hawaii’s Big Island, adjacent to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
(SSFC, 8/28/05, p.E4)
1990 GHB, gamma hydroxy
butyrate, began to be reported as a cause of illnesses. The paint
thinner gamma butyl lactone was being mixed with water and alcohol
that when ingested metabolized to GHB, later called "liquid ecstasy"
or "blue nitro."
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.A16)
1990 The Australian firm Thomas
Hardy & Sons, a family firm that had made wine for 160 years,
entered the market in Europe with an investment in Domaine de la
Baume in Languedoc, France.
(WSJ, 5/30/03, p.A3)
1991 Mar 21, Test results
released in Los Angeles showed that Rodney King, the motorist whose
beating by police was videotaped by a bystander, had marijuana and
alcohol in his system following his arrest. President Bush denounced
King’s beating as "sickening" and "outrageous."
(AP, 3/21/01)
1992 The Fetzer family sold the
Fetzer Vineyards brand and its Hopland wine-making facility to
Brown-Forman for a reported $80 million. As part of the deal 11
Fetzer siblings were prohibited from making any kind of beverage for
sale for 8 years. Sidney Goldstein (d.2008 at 61), author of “The
Wine Lover’s Cookbook” (1999), served for many years as the food and
wine concepts director at Fetzer Vineyards.
(SFC, 1/1/04, p.D3)(SFC, 12/9/04, p.F3)(SSFC,
10/5/08, p.B7)
1992 The Australian wine firm
Thomas Hardy & Sons merged with a rival to create BRL Hardy.
(WSJ, 5/30/03, p.A3)
1992 In Finland the Wife
Carrying contest was initiated to revive a 200 year old tradition
from when Ronkainen the Robber tested aspiring members of his gang
by making them carry huge sacks on their backs through an obstacle
course. Cash prizes and the wife’s weight in beer was awarded to the
winners.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.A2)
1993 May 2, Julio Gallo
(b.1910), wine maker (Gallo), died in a car accident.
(www.britannica.com/ebi/article-9311360)
1993 In Germany the
Reinheitsgebot law of 1516 was relaxed to allow foreign brewers to
sell their beer in Germany.
(WSJ, 5/27/98, p.A1)
1993 The Mondavi Wine Co. went
public.
(SFC, 7/21/96, p.D4)
1993 In Tanzania in a
privatization drive part of the government stake in Safari beer was
sold to a South African company.
(WSJ, 12/10/96, p.A1)
1994 Apr 5, Andre Victor
Tchelistcheff (b.1901), Russian-born winemaker, died in California.
He developed frost-prevention techniques and helped curb vine
disease in Napa Valley. Beside managing Beaulieu Vineyards in Napa
for 35 years, Tchelistcheff operated a private wine laboratory in
St. Helena for 15 years. He also assembled a fabled library of wine
literature.
(http://tinyurl.com/8kqmd)
1994 Nov 10, In Russia Colonel
Mikhail Likhodey chairman of the Afghan War Invalids Fund was killed
by a bomb blast outside his apartment. The Fund had been granted
lucrative tax exemptions on the import and export of alcohol and
tobacco with an estimated value of $800 million.
(SFC, 11/11/96, p.A13)(SFC, 11/12/96, p.A11)
1994 Mealybugs were first
discovered in California vineyards and by 2007 30-40 thousand acres
were infested. In 2007 experiments were begun were begun with dogs
trained to sniff out female mealybugs in heat.
(WSJ, 6/14/07, p.A1)
1995 May, In Chile the Ministry
of Agriculture imposed a System of Appellation for the wine
industry. New labels would correctly indicate a wine’s region of
origin.
(SFC, 1/8/96, zz-1 p.4)
1995 Oz Clarke, British wine
writer, published his 1st "Wine Atlas."
(SFC, 1/2/03, p.D5)
1997 Mar 19, It was reported
that purple grape juice slows the activity of blood platelets by
about 75% and thus reduces the risk of heart attacks. Red wine and
aspirin slowed platelet activity by about 45%.
(SFC, 3/19/97, p.A10)
1997 Apr 24, Pat Paulsen (69),
comedian, died in Mexico. In 1968 on the Smothers Brothers TV show
he announced that he was running for president and actually got his
name on the ballot in 1972. He built the Pat Paulsen Winery in Asti,
Ca., and proclaimed himself mayor in 1986.
(SFC, 4/26/97, p.A22)(AP, 4/24/98)
1997 Matraca Berg wrote her
song "Strawberry Wine," which became a major hit sung by Deana
Carter.
(WSJ, 9/23/97, p.A20)
1997 Darioush Khaledi, a
successful immigrant grocer, started his Darioush Winery in Napa,
Ca. In 2004 a new visitor’s center was opened to evoke the spirit of
his native Iran’s ancient capital of Persepolis.
(SFC, 3/21/08, p.F3)
1997 Dr. Julio and Amalia
Palmaz purchased the Cedar Knoll winery in Napa, Ca. They then
proceeded to build an 100,000 square-foot underground wine
operation, despite neighbors protests, estimated to cost $20
million. Dr. Palmaz was internationally know for inventing the
balloon-expandable coronary stent. In 2008 Palmaz Vineyards produced
some 6,000 cases of Cabernet and 1,000 cases of white wines costing
from $32 to $150 a bottle.
(SFC, 1/2/09, p.W8)
1998 Feb 27, Jack Micheline
(born as Harvey Martin Silver in NY), Bohemian poet, died at 68 of a
heart attack on a BART train between SF and Orinda. His first book
of poetry was "River of Red Wine," and his last was "Sixty Seven
Poems for Downtrodden Saints."
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.D8)
1998 Apr 9, In Colombia a
Catholic priest and a lay worker died from a toxic cocktail of wine
mixed with cyanide. At least 10 Easter baskets with poisoned wine
were delivered to priests in the provinces of Meta and Cundinamarca.
(SFC, 4/13/98, p.A14)
1998 Charles L. Sullivan
authored “A Companion to California Wine: An Encyclopedia of Wine
and Winemaking from the Mission Period to the Present.”
(www.amazon.com/Companion-California-Wine-Encyclopedia-Winemaking/dp/0520213513)
1998 Dorothy J. Gaiter and John
Brecher began their Wall Street Journal column on wine. Their first
article was about American Merlot.
(WSJ, 2/20/04, p.W4)(WSJ, 3/21/08, p.W3)
1998 Carole Meredith, UC Davis
plant geneticist, identified the Durif grape as a cross between the
French grape Peloursin and Syrah. The Durif grape was named by
Francois Durif, botanist and grape breeder, around 1880 as the
result of an unintended crossing between two varieties. California
vines labeled Petite Sirah had already been identified as Durif.
(SFC, 1/20/05, p.F5)
1999 Sep 2, Genetic experts
reported that Chardonnay and 15 other varietal wines have resulted
from a coupling between Pinot and Gouais blanc grapes.
(SFC, 9/3/99, p.A1)
1999 In South Africa a wine
buyer suggested the vinification of a Rhone-style blend called Goats
do Roam owned by Charles Back.
(SFC, 10/31/08, p.F2)
1999 Thailand’s Siam Winery
launched its first label, Chatemp. In 2003 the "Monsoon Valley"
range was introduced abroad by Chalerm Yoovidhya, whose father
Chaleo gave the world the "Red Bull" energy drink.
(AFP, 1/24/07)
1999 In Turkey Guler Sabanci
launched her wine label “G.”
(Econ, 1/29/05, p.64)
2000 Aug 28, Foster’s Brewing
of Australia reported a deal to buy the California Beringer winery
for some $1.5 billion.
(SFC, 8/29/00, p.A1)
2001 Dec 20, It was reported
that researchers had identified red wine pigments (polyphenols) as a
factor in inhibiting the production of a peptide that stimulates
hardening of the arteries.
(WSJ, 12/20/01, p.A1)
2001 Stuart Fleming, Univ. of
Pennsylvania physicist, authored and self-published “Vinum: The
Story of Roman Wine.”
(AM, 11/04, p.35)
2001 Robert Mondavi backed the
opening of Copia, the $50 million American Center for Wine, Food and
the Arts, in Napa, Ca.
(USAT, 6/17/98, p.2D)(SSFC, 8/6/06, p.G8)
2001 A grape genetically
identical to California’s zinfandel was discovered growing wild in
Croatia.
(SFC, 9/7/05, p.F8)
2002 Jan 4, Antonio Todde, an
Italian shepherd listed by Guinness as the world’s oldest man, died
just shy of his 113th birthday. "Just love your brother and drink a
good glass of red wine every day."
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A22)
2002 Nov 9, A dry winter and a
wet summer ravaged Italy's grapevines, causing the worst harvest in
half a century. Some regions were spared the disasters, like
the area in Tuscany where Chianti is produced and parts of southern
Italy.
(AP, 11/9/02)
2002 Dec, Roberto Massari,
Italian publisher, dedicated a new wine, Rosso Gayardo, to Karl
Heinrich (1825-1895), considered to be the 1st gay activist.
(SFC, 1/30/03, p.D6)
2002 Dec, Diageo PLC launched
Ciroc, the 1st grape-based vodka.
(WSJ, 10/20/04, p.B1)
2002 The USDA approved
definitions and standards regarding organic wines for domestic
winemakers and imported wine, effective with the 2003 vintage.
(WSJ, 5/12/06, p.W6)
2003 Jan 17, Constellation
Brands of Fairport NY announced a $1.4 billion acquisition of
Australia’s BRL Hardy. The combination would form the world’s
largest wine company.
(SFC, 1/18/03, p.A1)
2003 Alan Deutschman authored
"A Tale of Two Valleys: Wine, Wealth and the Battle for the Good
Life in Napa and Sonoma."
(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.M1)
2003 Patrick E. McGovern
authored "Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viticulture."
(AM, 3/04, p.56)
2003 In Italy regional
legislation recognized the prosecco district, a region just north of
Venice, for sparkling wine produced with prosecco grapes.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.108)
2004 Apr 16, After analyzing
730 confirmed cases of gout from among a group of 47,000 men over 12
years, London researchers demonstrated that drinkers are more likely
to get gout, and that beer is worse and wine is best. Gout is caused
by deposits of crystals of a chemical called uric acid in joints.
Alcohol consumption leads to "hyperuricaemia" -- when the body
produces too much uric acid.
(Reuters, 4/16/04)
2004 Oct 19, Constellation
Brands announced that it had made an unsolicited $970 million
takeover offer for Robert Mondavi Corp.
(WSJ, 10/20/04, p.A6)
2004 VinoVenue opened at 686
Mission St. in SF. It featured automated machines and smart cards
for wine tasting.
(SFC, 11/11/04, p.F1)
2004 Christy Campbell authored
“The Botanist and the Vintner: How Wine Was Saved for the World.”
(Econ, 5/8/04, p.80)(SSFC, 3/27/05, p.E3)
2004 William Echikson authored
“Noble Rot: A Bordeaux Wine Revolution.”
(Econ, 5/8/04, p.80)(WSJ, 6/4/04, p.W4)
2004 Lawrence Osborne authored
"The Accidental Connoisseur: An Irreverent Journey Through the Wine
World."
(SSFC, 4/4/04, p.M4)
2005 May 16, The US Supreme
Court in Swedenburg v. Kelly ruled 5-4 that wine lovers may buy
directly from out-of-state vineyards if those states allow direct
shipments from in-state wineries. Vintner Juanita Swedenburg
(1925-2007) had filed her suit against a New York state law in 2000.
(AP, 5/16/05)(SFC, 5/17/05, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/16/07,
p.A6)
2005 Oct 12, A fire at the
Wines Central warehouse in Vallejo, Ca., destroyed tens of million
of dollars worth of vintage wine. An estimated 6 million bottles
were in storage there. On Oct 18 investigators said the fire was
deliberately set. In 2007 Mark Anderson (58), a Sausalito
businessman, was charged with setting the fire.
(SFC, 10/13/05, p.A1)(SFC, 10/19/05, p.B1)(SFC,
3/20/07, p.A1)
2005 Nov 17, France released
its annual Beaujolais Nouveau from the 2005 harvest. The annual
release is made every 3rd Thursday in November.
(SFC, 11/22/05, p.F2)
2005 Elin McCoy authored “The
Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Parker, Jr. and the Reign of
American Taste.”
(SFC, 7/7/05, p.F4)
2006 Mar 5, Rodney Strong (78),
dancer-turned winemaker, died in Healdsburg, Ca.
(SFC, 3/7/06, p.B5)
2006 Sep 20, Henri Jayer (84),
a master of balanced pinot noir, died in Dijon, France. He was
viewed by many connoisseurs to be the finest Burgundy winemaker of
his generation.
(AP, 9/21/06)
2006 James Gabler authored “An
Evening with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson: Dinner, Wine
and Conversation.”
(WSJ, 9/1/06, p.A9)
2007 Mar 6, Ernest Gallo (97),
who parlayed $5,900 and a wine recipe from a public library into the
world's largest winemaking empire, died at his home in Modesto, Ca.
(AP, 3/7/07)
2007 Jul 31, A new study
reported that drinking wine or beer every day increases the risk of
bowel cancer. The British Daily Telegraph reported 35,000 people are
diagnosed each year with bowel cancer and that it kills 16,100
a year.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul, Warren Winiarski sold
his Stag’s Leap winery in Napa County to Italian winemaker Piero
Antinori and Ste. Michelle Wine Estates of Washington state for $185
million.
(SFC, 3/28/08, p.F6)
2007 Nov 10, Patrick Healy
(b.1946), manager of Fetzer Vineyards in Hopland, Ca., died. Healy
had initiated the company’s recycling program and cut waste from
operations by 95%.
(SFC, 11/24/07, p.A8)
2007 Nov 12, Constellation
Brands said it will pay $885 million for the US wine business of
Fortune Brands, which includes the Geyser Peak, Wild Horse, Buena
Vista Carneros and Gary Farrell labels. The deal also included 1,500
acres of vineyards in Sonoma and Napa counties.
(SFC, 11/13/07, p.B1)
2007 Dec 18, An Italian team
published the first full genetic sequence of a grape variety, pinot
noir, in the Public Library of Science.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.137)
2007 Julia Flynn Siler authored
“The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine
Dynasty.”
(WSJ, 6/15/07, p.W1)
2007 The wine boom in Australia
went bust forcing many farmers to walk away from grapes and land
they could not sell. Falling grape prices due to over production and
cuts to irrigation water due to drought created a double whammy.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.84)
2007 New Zealand had a bumper
year in wine, which overtook wool exports in value for the first
time becoming the country’s 12th most valuable export.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.85)
2008 Jan 17, A US federal judge
struck down Texas laws barring out-of-state retailers from shipping
wine to consumers.
(WSJ, 1/18/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 4, An executive for a
prominent Tuscan wine producer said authorities confiscated some
600,000 bottles of his company's 2003 Brunello di Montalcino,
alleging too many bottles were produced for it to be entirely
authentic.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 May 16, Robert Mondavi
(b.1913), the pioneering vintner who helped put California wine
country on the map, died at his Napa Valley home. He was 52 and a
winemaking veteran in 1966, when he opened the winery that would
help turn the Napa Valley into a world center of the industry.
(AP, 5/16/08)(SFC, 5/17/08, p.A1)
2008 May 16, Maria Isavel
Vasquez Jimenez (17), a pregnant Mexican migrant worker, died after
succumbing to heat stroke from laboring more than 9 hours in a San
Joaquin County, Ca., vineyard.
(AP, 3/9/11)
2008 Jul 23, It was reported
that Napa Valley’s Chateau Montelena, winner of a 1976 wine tasting
event in France, was being purchased by Cos d’Estournel of Bordeaux,
France.
(SFC, 7/23/08, p.C1)
2008 Oct 28, Ricardo Claro
(b.1934), Chilean industrialist, died. His industrial empire
stretched from shipping (CSAV) to media to wine (Santa Rita). In
1974 he announced to the world, on behalf of the Pinochet
government, that Chile was once again open for business.
(WSJ, 11/8/08, p.A6)
2008 Nov 20, The 2008 edition
of Beaujolais Nouveau wine arrived, and vintners hoped it will lift
spirits despite the financial crisis and a dismal crop.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Dec 10, In Italy a bumper
harvest was expected to push wine production above that of
neighboring France for the first time in a decade, making Italy the
world's largest wine producer.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 22, In California it
was announced that the Sebastiani Vineyards and Winery has been sold
to the Foley Wine Group of Los Olivos, Ca.
(SFC, 12/23/08, p.A1)
2008 Dec 31, In Brazil
Christian Wolffer (70), owner of the Wolffer Estate winery, bled to
death after suffering two deep cuts on his back while swimming on
New Year's Eve near the colonial town of Paraty, about 150
kilometers (100 miles) west of Rio de Janeiro. A man suspected of
piloting a motorboat that struck and killed Wolffer was detained on
Jan 4.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2008 Alice Feiring authored
“The Battle for Wine and Love: Or How I Saved the World From
Parkerization.”
(SFC, 5/23/08, p.E6)
2009 Mar 25, The EU laid
out new labeling rules laid allowing Rose wine customers to know
exactly how their grapes were treated to turn their tipple a
blushing pink.
(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 Jul 30, Bill Leigon,
president of Hahn Family Wines in Soledad, Calif., said that visits
to the company's Web site have increased tenfold since news of an
Alabama ban on his Cycles Gladiator wine broke late last week.
Callers from across the country have been asking where they can buy
the wine. It was reported that the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage
Control Board had recently told stores and restaurants to quit
serving Cycles Gladiator wine because of a label that features a
nude nymph. The wine's label is copied from an 1895 French
advertising poster for Cycles Gladiator bicycles. It shows a side
view of a full-bodied nymph flying alongside a winged bicycle.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Sep 15, In California a
juice sucking grapevine moth, known as Lobesia botrana, was first
detected in the Oakville area of Napa County. In March, 2010, the
California Dept. of Food and Agriculture quarantined 162 square
miles of land in the area to halt the infestation.
(SFC, 3/12/10, p.A1)
2009 Dec 5, It was reported
that US federal regulators have approved the use of the name
Calistoga as an appellation for vintners in Calistoga, Ca. James
Barrett, proprietor of the Chateau Montelena winery, had begun
petitioning the Treasury Dept. for the name in 2003.
(SFC, 12/5/09, p.D1)
2009 Dec 21, In India Riona
Wines, based in western Maharashtra state, the country's
grape-growing centre, signed investment agreements with Italian
vintners Moncaro and Enzo Mecella.
(AFP, 12/22/09)
2009 Richard Mendelson authored
“From Demon to Darling: A Legal History of Wine in America.”
(SSFC, 7/5/09, p.F1)
2010 Jul 13, Divers found
bottles of champagne in a wreck near the Aland Islands between
Finland and Sweden. 5 bottles of dark, foamy beer wee later
recovered while salvaging the champagne. The shipwreck was believed
to be from the early 19th century. In 2011 Finnish scientists said
they hoped to re-brew an old ale after studying the ancient beer
found in the shipwreck.
(http://tinyurl.com/4kawd2n)(AP, 2/8/11)
2010 Oct 18, In Cambodia 20
people remained hospitalized after 14 people died over the weekend
from drinking wine tainted with weed killer at a ceremony where
villagers were appealing to spirits to protect children.
(AP, 10/18/10)
2010 Nov 1, British scientists
said alcohol is a more dangerous drug than both crack and heroin
when the combined harms to the user and to others are assessed.
(Reuters, 11/1/10)
2010 Dec 6, It was reported
that Fiji Water, owned by billionaire Stewart Resnick, will acquire
Justin Vineyards and Winery in Paso Robles, Ca.
(SFC, 12/6/10, p.D1)
2010 Dec 23, It was reported
that the first pill designed to curb a person’s urge to have more
than a few drinks of alcohol was undergoing tests in Europe. The
drug (nalmafene) was developed by H. Lundbeck A/S in Valby, Denmark.
(SFC, 12/23/10, p.A2)
2011 Jan 11, It was reported
that the earliest known winery, dating back some 6,000 years, has
been discovered in Armenia.
{Wine, Armenia}
(SFC, 1/11/11, p.A2)
2011 Feb 10, Austrian police
said vandals have destroyed a 500-year-old grapevine in the village
of St. Georgen that was believed to have been a direct ancestor of
the popular gruner veltliner wine, known as gru-vee in the US.
(SFC, 2/11/11, p.A2)
2011 Apr 21, Jess Stonestreet
Jackson (81), lawyer turned winemaker, died in Geyserville, Ca. He
and his first wife, Jane Kendall, produced their first wine under
the Kendall-Jackson label in 1982. His brand soon became synonymous
with Chardonnay, the nation’s most favored grape.
(SFC, 4/22/11, p.A1)
2011 Apr 25, Chinese oil
refining giant Sinopec said it has demoted Lu Guangyu, a top
executive, who bought 1.6 million yuan (148,463 pounds) of wine and
spirits after details of the purchase leaked onto the Internet and
sparked an uproar over extravagance at the state-owned firm.
(Reuters, 4/25/11)
2011 Aug 23, In South Africa a
new study on the country’s renowned wine and fruit farms said
workers face unfit housing and exposure to pesticides and are
blocked from forming labor unions. Industry groups criticized HRW's
research methods, accusing the organization of bias.
(AFP, 8/23/11)
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Subject = wine
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