On the Vine: Things You Might Not Know
By Andy Andresky
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| One out of every five glasses of wine consumed in the world is sake. |
• Beer was not sold in bottles until 1850; it was not sold in cans until 1935.
• Liquor stores in the U.S. are called “package stores” and sell “package goods” because of laws that require alcoholic containers to be concealed in public by being placed in paper bags or “packages.”
• The term “brand name” originated among American distillers, who branded their names and emblems on their kegs before shipment.
• In ancient Babylon, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead (fermented honey beverage) he could drink for a month after the wedding. Because their calendar was lunar, or moon-based, the period of free mead was called the “honey month,” or what we now call the “honeymoon.”
• Before thermometers were invented, brewers would dip a thumb or finger into the liquid to determine the ideal temperature (neither too hot nor too cold) for adding yeast. From this we get the phrase “rule of thumb.”
• “Whiskey” is the international aviation word used to represent the letter “w.”
• There are 83 dry towns and villages in Alaska.
• In 1933, California became the first state to make a legal age drinking law.
• A labeorphilist is a collector of beer bottles.
• The average number of grapes it takes to make a bottle of wine is 600.
• Move over, Mickey Mouse; Napa Valley has replaced Disneyland as California’s No. 1 tourist destination, with 5.5 million visitors a year.
• Some favorite cocktails of former U.S. presidents are reported to be:
- American-made beer (George Washington)
- Wine (Thomas Jefferson)
- Gin and tonic (Gerald Ford)
- Martini (Herbert Hoover)
- Rum and coke (Richard Nixon)
- Bourbon (Harry Truman)
• Vassar College was established and funded by a brewer.
• Sloe gin is not gin at all, but a liqueur made with sloe berries (blackthorn bush berries).
• One out of every five glasses of wine consumed in the world is sake.
