(Bill Stobbs consumes more rosé wine per square inch

of body weight than any other person in Florida.)

            It’s been about a year since I last offered you some wine trivia, so here we go again in the hope that you can enlighten and elucidate your guests with useless knowledge at your New Year’s party ---

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  The bill for the celebration party for the 55 drafters of the US Constitution was for 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of Claret, 8 bottles of Whiskey, 22 bottles of Port, 8 bottles of Hard Cider, 12 Beers, and 7 bowls of alcoholic Punch large enough that “ducks could swim in them”. (Sounds like Saturday night at my house!)
  
  


• Lyndon Johnson started the tradition of serving only American wine at the White House. Richard Nixon followed suit reluctantly, as he preferred French wine and would cover his own bottle of French wine with a napkin. (Tricky Dick indeed!)


• Thomas Jefferson built wine cellars underneath the White House and stocked them with over 20,000 bottles of European wine during his eight years in office. (PS. The White House no longer uses a wine cellar.)


• Prior to the Civil War, Ohio was considered America’s most important wine-producing state.


• Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, included wine in almost every one of his recorded remedies. He used it for cooling fevers, as a diuretic, as a general antiseptic, and to aid convalescence.


• The wreck of the Titanic holds the oldest known wine cellar still in existence. And most of the bottles are still intact!

And not to forget some sparkling wine trivia for your celebrations ---

• There are 49 million bubbles in a bottle of Champagne.


• The pressure within a Champagne bottle is 90 pounds per square inch – greater than your car tires. The cork leaves the bottle at 135 miles per hour.


• The longest recorded champagne cork flight was 177 feet 9 inches at four feet above ground level at Woodbury Vineyards in New York State.


• Forget the martini – the tally of drinks consumed by James Bond in the movies proves that his favorite tipple is Champagne. In earlier films he orders Dom Perignon 1953, ’55, ’57, ’64, and ’69. More recently he has preferred Bollinger ’61 (among other vintages).

Hope you have a terrific New Year! Cheers!   Bill

Bill Stobbs, West Coast Wine Supervisor

(Follow me on Twitter: @abcwinebills)