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Wine Day

“I love everything that is old; old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.”

~ Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield, 1766


Whether you're fond of white, red, or rosé, today is the day! There are different days of the year devoted to specific varieties of wine, but today is the day to appreciate the wide range and colours, flavours, and varieties of this thousands of years old beverage. Though the earliest evidence of wine is from ancient Georgia (6000 BC), Persia (5000 BC), and Italy (4000 BC), there are New World wines with historic connections to alcoholic beverages made by the indigenous peoples of the Americas, but are mainly connected to the later Viking area of Vinland and Spanish traditions in New Spain. And although many people think of the general palette of wine colours as ranging from the pale yellows to dark rubies, there are actually naturally produced wines which can be unexpected colours such as: blue (Gik Blue Wine from Spain made from special combinations of red and white grape skins); deep green (California aromatic cannabis colored wine and Scottish Cairn O’Mohr wine made from Oak leaves); and even orange wines from Georgia, Slovenia, and Italy (made from white grapes with their seeds intact)! Cheers! 🍇 🍷

Wine appreciation and various styles have definite eras and trends that come and go.  Many of one accepted traditions and "rules" are no longer followed, some of which were in the category of general "urban myth" in the first place.


According to those who know, here is a list of some rules and traditions that are now deemed to be either antiquated "myths", lazy generalizations, or are ripe for reconsideration:


  1.  Professional wine tasters can repeat their results - not true, apparently, from blind studies done over several years at competitions.

  2.  Boxed wine is for plebeians - convenience of packaging and better preservation techniques is gaining new traction amongst the trendy and younger set.

  3. Reds with meats, whites with fish - a rule of thumb that didn't mean much ever.

  4. All wine gets better with age - most wine is created to be drunk within a year or two.

  5. You should be ashamed of putting ice in your wine - horrors!  But this is a way that can be used to dilute especially strong wine (in the same manner as adding water to Scotch) or to chill a wine quickly.

  6. Cork stoppers are better than twist-off caps - screw type caps been proven to perform better than corks in protecting wine from harmful oxidation, though lack the theatrical flair when opening.

  7. The more expensive a wine, the better it tastes - psychology, my dears.

  8. Sweet wines are for amateurs - Riesling now appears on the list of most expensive wines, and French Sauternes and Italian Amarone are some of the most treasured of dessert wines.


As with everything, your palette can decide.  Cheers, my dears!


This fashion tartan was designed by West Coast Woolen Mill in 1973.


For more on the more unusual colours of wines available, click the wine colour array!


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