Wine Trivia - Fun Vinous Facts

It's the festive season and a time when I trust corks will be popping, wine will be flowing and glasses clinking.  Maybe also a time to amuse friends with some of these fun - and some serious wine facts; 1. Oenostiaphobia is an official phobia – the fear of running out of wine! Wine Events Scotland can always assist if you have this! 2. The world’s oldest bottle of wine is still sealed. It’s over 1,600 years old and stored in a museum in Speyer, Germany. 3. There’s a village in Italy with a free wine fountain. In Ortona, a public fountain dispenses red wine 24/7 for pilgrims. 4. Wine is the oldest alcoholic beverage in the world - the oldest known wine is about 8,000 years old. Archaeologists discovered ancient wine residue in clay jars from Georgia, hence it is known as the birthplace of winemaking. 5. In the UK 92% of wine purchased is consumed within 48 hours! It’s clearly too good to keep! 6. Grapes are the most planted fruit in the world. There are over 10,000 varieties of wine grapes globally. 7. Rosé is older than red or white wine. Historically, ancient winemakers couldn’t fully separate skins from juice, so early wines were pinkish. 8. In ancient Rome, women were forbidden from drinking wine. A husband could divorce his wife if she was caught drinking wine! 9. A standard wine bottle contains about 600 grapes. That’s roughly 1.1 kg of fruit per bottle. 10. More people are killed by flying sparkling wine corks than by being bitten by poisonous spiders! Make sure your fizz is well chilled before removing the cork and always point bottles away from people….and valuable objects. 11. The world’s longest wine cork was over 40 feet long, made in Portugal. I’m just concerned about the lack of space there would be for wine in that bottle! 12. Nice things come in small…..bubbles Smaller bubbles in sparkling wine are generally seen as a sign of quality – they’re more elegant and creamy.