DID YOU KNOW?

-  Foot treading of grapes is still used in producing a small quantity of the best port wines.

-  In ancient Babylon, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead wine (fermented honey wine), he could drink for a month after the wedding.  Because their calendar was lunar or moon-based, this period of free mead was called the "honey-month, or what we now call the "honeymoon."

 -  Thomas Jefferson's salary was $25,000 per year.  His expenses were great.  In 1801 Jefferson spent $6,500 for provisions and groceries, $2,700 for servants, $500 for Lewis's salary and $3,000 for wine! 
 
(Jefferson's dumbwaiter at Monticello to his wine cellar)

-  A 4 ounce glass of wine has 85 calories.

-  Mesopotamians are credited with producing the first wines, in 6000BC.

-  Wine's first purpose was as a water purifier.  Primitive people developed a foolproof method to kill any harmful organisms in their water.  They'd mix fermented juice from fruit (wine) and found the alcohol was a sufficient sanitizer making the water pure for drinking.

Marie Griffin, Wine Supervisor, West Florida