Magnums, Fossils & Nebuchadnezzar: 21 Wine Tidbits for 2021

原创 Jim Boyce CHEERSWines

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How many grapes does it take to make a bottle of wine? Which country has a 17th-century vine that still bears fruit? What's a 15-liter bottle called? All this info and more in the following 21 wine tidbits for 2021.

01 A standard 750 milliliter bottle of wine typically uses 600 to 800 grapes, per Wine Spectator Magazine.

02 A bottle twice that size--1.5 liters--is called a magnum.

03 And a bottle 20 times that size--or 15 liters--is called a Nebuchadnezzar.

Source: premierchampagne.com

04 Nebuchadnezzar II was a Babylonian king who lived 2600 years ago--some say the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were created during his reign. Gardens and grapes: what better pairing?

05 Champagne bottles have thicker glass than most wine bottles due to the high pressure inside.

06 And that pressure means Champagne corks can fly out crazy fast. Faster than Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt? We covered that here: Usain Bolt VS a Champagne Cork – Who's Faster?

07 Opening a bottle of Champagne with a sword is called sabering. It's best done while sober. Remember: saber sober!

GIF source: giphy.com

08 The world's most common wine grape is Cabernet Sauvignon at 341,000 hectares/5.1 million mu, states the OIV, a global wine NGO. Cabernet also rules the wine vineyards of China.

09 The most planted white grapes are Chardonnay, found worldwide, and Airen, native to and widely planted in Spain, though often used for Brandy.

10 These three grapes have only a small share of world vineyard coverage given there are at least another 8,000 varieties out there!

11 The book Wine Grapes by Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding and José Vouillamoz covers 1368 varieties. If you tried one of those grape varieties each day, it would take nearly four years to finish.

12 Spain has the most vineyard coverage, with 1,154,000 hectares/17.3 million mu, states the OIV.

13 China is second to Spain in coverage but over 80 percent of vineyards here are dedicated to table grapes and raisins. In fact, China is by far the world's biggest table grape producer.

GIF source: giphy.com

14 The cold winters in north China mean the vines must be buried as protection, thus meaning a nice long nap. Shandong and Yunnan are warm enough to avoid this.

15 It typically takes at least three years after planting a grape vine before the fruit is used for commercial wine, which means owners think long and hard before deciding what to plant.

16 But those vines can live incredibly long, with many over a century old. Slovenia has one vine, still producing grapes, that dates to at least the 17th century.

17 That Slovenian vine features a grape called Žametovka. Each year it produces about 45 kilograms of grapes, though the ensuing wine would only fill a few Nebuchadnezzar.

18 Speaking of old, scientists have dated the oldest fossilized grape seeds to 65 million years ago. No word on whether the wine would have paired well with dinosaur steaks.

Source: Florida Museum

19 A little more recent is evidence of grapes being part of a boozy brew made in China some 8,000 years ago in Henan. Just guessing the first 'ganbei' soon followed.

Source: Baidu

20 The modern Chinese wine industry dates to the founding of Changyu in 1892 in Shandong although quality wineries have been popping up across the country in recent years.

21 And they should. Even though Chinese consumers only average about a liter per person of wine per year, this is a market with massive potential. And we are lucky to be part of that market as it gets better and better. Ganbei!

GIF source: giphy.com

Original by Jim Boyce, Grape Wall of China 葡萄围城

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