Wine Trivia anyone? 

The two greatest things about trivia are getting to learn something interesting and simply having fun. And, if you get to add a little wine to the game, well then, so much the better. Visit Raising the Bar Liquors, your favorite hometown liquor store to find the best wine and read below the wine trivia you need to know. So let’s do it. Trivia, wine and a whole lot of fun. Here we go.

30 Wine Trivia Facts

  1. During the ancient Roman empire, women were forbidden from drinking wine. It was not acceptable at all. In fact, the husband had the authority to kill his wife if he discovered she drank wine. You have to travel all the way back to the year 194 BC when a Roman man last divorced his wife simply for having tasted wine. We’ve come a long way, baby.
  2. Have you ever noticed that your gums will tingle when drinking a glass of wine? The reason is fascinating. A substance known as tannin settles in the bottom of your wine glass. When you drink it, it’s antioxidants go to work and you can feel the tingling properties in your gum tissue. 
  3. A normal glass of white wine contains about 110 calories. Red wine? Same thing. There is no difference in whether you choose red or white wine. If calories are an issue, avoid the sweeter wines. 
  4. Red Burgundy is regarded as the Holy Grail by wine enthusiasts around the world, and the reason is easy. The Pinot Noir grape, used in Red Burgundy wine, is very difficult to grow. Because of the rarity, this makes the perfect fact for wine trivia. 
  5. Early Europeans returned home from the new world with vine cuttings that, unbeknownst at the time, had Phylloxera vastatrix. It is a tiny bug known for eating the roots of vines. In an attempt to save their native grapevines, the Europeans were forced to graft American vines to the stocks of European roots. Today there is Pre-Phylloxera wine on the European continent, and it refers to wine made before 1860.
  1. This wine trivia may change the way you store your wine.The traditional way of storing wine is to leave the bottles of their side, rather than standing them up. The reasoning is focused on keeping the cork wet and preventing it from deteriorating and crumbling over time. A faulty and shrunken cork will destroy the wine by letting in too much air.
  2. In ancient times wine was transported in wineskins. Wineskins were made from animal skin, usually from a pig. The skin was completely cleaned, tanned, and turned inside out. The wine, while it was stored over time, remained in contact with the hair of the animal.
wine trivia facts for your next party
  1. During the Medieval Ages, Monastic religious orders were masterful and innovative winemakers. The very best winemakers were the Benedictines and Cistercians. It is said that they tasted the actual soil in trying to understand the quality of the dirt in different regions. You can even find this practice today in some parts of the world.
  2. Red Wine is made from Red or purple grapes? Wrong. Red wine is red because the skin is left in with the juice in the fermenting process.
  3. The perfect Midwest wine trivia. Did you know grapes for winemaking hold the number one spot for total acreage of fruit crops in the world? 
  1. Sixty casks of wine equal about one ton of grapes. Do the math and that’s 720 bottles of wine for every one ton of grapes. 
  2. King Tutankhamen’s tomb was finally opened in 1922. They found many jars of wine in his grave, which of course, had been buried for many years. The jars had extensive labeling which noted the year, winemaker and detailed notes like “very good wine.’ Some regard the ancient labeling as good as any seen in modern days.
fun facts about wine and its history
  1. On your next wine trivia night, try using new vocabulary like “symposium”. A meeting known as a “symposium” was considered the intellectual social gathering of the ancient Greeks. Symposium means ‘drinking together’ and the Greek philosophers certainly enjoyed waxing intellectual and drinking wine. 
  2. Monasteries and churches weren’t the only places where wine was consumed centuries ago. Universities and hospitals were also institutions with wine as a major income source. One particular hospital, known as the Hôtel-Dieu, in Beaune, France, is now a museum.
  3. Not all wine trivia is good fun facts or good news. Wine will affect women more than men due to the thin enzyme linings in women compared to that of men. The enzyme, known as alcohol dehydrogenase, assists in the alcohol being metabolized in our bodies.
  1. The first organization created exclusively for women to promote wine and the wine industry is called Le Donne del Vino and was formed by women in Italy in 1988.
  2. What is said by those in the wine business if a cork is discovered to be contaminated? The phrase is ‘the bottle is corked.’ It means that the wine has a musty smell, reminding one of wet and moldy cardboard.
  3. Surely you have heard that sniffing a cork will reveal the quality of the wine. Wrong! It’s a total myth. The only method for understanding a wine’s quality is to drink it. A cork can be analyzed by checking if it has cracks or if it is too dry. But smelling the wine? It tells us nothing.
wine trivia with Raising the Bar Liquors
  1. There is no such thing as “feminine wine.” Maybe a particular wine has a more delicate taste and finish compared with other wines, but that’s the extent of it. The same is true for wine referred to as “masculine.” It just means ‘big’ or ‘full’ wine.
  2. Throughout Europe, wines get their name from the geographic location in which it has been produced. Outside of European countries, wine gets its name from the grape variety used in production. At Raising the Bar Liquors, you can find wine from all over the world. 
  3. Here’s a terrific piece of wine trivia. There is a wine known as ‘numb’ wine. It is a variety of wine with no color and no aroma. There is also a variety called ‘dumb’ wine. It also lacks color and aroma but will develop it at a later date. 
  4. What is the right way to hold a glass of wine? Holding a glass of wine can be expressed as the ‘correct way’ and the ‘incorrect way.’ The correct method is to hold the wine by the glass stem. It is considered incorrect to hold the bowl of the glass, due to our body heat warming the wine.
  5. Most believe that champagne was first created by Benedictine monk Dom Pierre Perignon. Not exactly. He did invent the production process for champagne, but not the recipe itself. 
  6. Wine tasting basically involves smelling the wine, since not enough is sipped at a tasting to make an informed determination. Women, therefore, are much better at wine tastings than are men, especially reproductive women. A woman’s olfactory senses are far superior to that of a man’s.
  7. What is truly meant by the word ‘vintage?’ Vintage wine comes from a single year’s harvest. If a wine is produced by mixing harvests, it is referred to as non-vintage. Vintage has nothing to do with a particular calendar year.
  8. There are those folks known as prohibitionists. Some people just call them ‘dry.’ In the early 20th century, they attempted to remove even the mentioning of wine from universities and schools, as well as the literature of ancient Rome and Greece. They also requested the Bible be altered to only refer to wine as grape juice. 
  9. Oak trees harvested in France for wine barrels will average about 170 years of use.
  10. More Roman wine trivia is ahead. Romans discovered that if they burned sulfur candles inside empty wine vessels, there would be no vinegar odor.
  11. No matter the color of a wine, all wines are stored at the same temperature. But when drinking reds or whites, the temperature can (and should) be very different.
  12. In ancient Greece, it was a tradition that wine is consumed in moderation, and a special wine glass was created. If one filled this glass beyond the defined level, the liquid would flow out from the bottom of the glass. Boo.

So, there you go. Thirty great nuggets of wine trivia to help you be a snob at the next party or wine tasting. Enjoy yourself, smarty pants and remember to visit Raising the Bar Liquors for the perfect wine your guests will enjoy!