Have fun with these fun wine facts.

1. Dom Perignon (1638-1715), the cellar master of the Hautvillers Benedictine Abbey was blind.
2. 98% of all commercially produced wine in the world is consumed within 1 week of purchase.
3. Thomas Jefferson helped stock the wine cellars of the first five U.S. presidents and was very partial to fine Bordaux and Madeira.
4. Wine Composition: 86% water, 11.2% alcohol, 2.8% other. Over 250 compounds have been identified in "other". That is why wine making is an art and not a science.
5. Old wine almost never turns to vinegar. It spoils by oxidation.
6. In Ancient Egypt (around 1300 BC), commners drank beer and the upper class drank wine.
7. When Leif Ericsson landed in North America in 1001 AD, he was so impressed by the proliferation of grapevines that he named it Vinland.
8. “AOC” stands for “Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée”. The French system of classifying its wines is relatively recent compared to the centuries that vines have been cultivated in the country. As winemaking became more and more of a serious economic activity, winemakers themselves wanted assurance that their wines were seen as having attained a certain level of quality.
9. Nebuchadnezzar is the largest wine bottle and holds 15 litres or 120 glasses of wine.
10. Cork was developed as a bottle closure in the late 17th century. It was only after this that bottles were lain down for aging, and the bottle shapes slowly changed from short and bulbous to tall and slender.
11. In 1949 the "hot" varietal was Muscatel and promoted strongly by the California wine industry.
12. High-quality dry table wines has about roughly 600 to 800 grapes per bottle, which may be about eight bunches of grapes per bottle or about five bottles from a healthy grapevine. (Dessert wines, using shriveled grapes for their concentrated juice, will have even more.)