Mug up on your wine knowledge with fun wine-related facts and information which you may not yet know...
1. 1 in 12 bottles of wine with a cork closure is ‘corked’
2. Chablis is made from Chardonnay
3. ‘Syrah’ is the French version of ‘Shiraz’
4. Red wines from Beaujolais can be chilled
5. White grape varieties like ‘Riesling’, ‘Gewürztraminer’ and 'Viognier' go well with spicy food
6. Champagne is often made from a blend of red and white grapes
7. Rose is the result of red grapes which have had little contact with the skins
8. There exists over 1,000 known grape varieties
9. A glass of wine per day is good for your health
10. Sweet wines from Sauternes are made from a fungus which attacks the grape and concentrates its sugar
11. One of the rarest champagnes is a Krug, Clos du Mesnil 1995, only 12,624 bottles were produced. It comes from one small walled vineyard of just 4.5 acres devoted entirely to chardonnay, so the champagne is known as a Blanc de Blanc. According to experts, the current release is soft, delicate, and remarkably accessible for champagne so ‘young’
12. The world's oldest known wooden vat or cask is still in use at the Hugel et Fils wine estate (founded in 1639) in Riquewihr, Haut-Rhin, France. Twelve generations of the Hugel family have used it for winemaking since 1715.
13. The most expensive commercially available wine is the Chateau d’Yquem Sauternes (1787), which costs from £29,000 to £32,000 per bottle, depending on the retailer. The Chateau d’Yquem is a sauterne (golden-coloured table or dessert wine) from the Bordeaux region in France. It is classified as a Premier Grand Cru and was favoured by Thomas Jefferson, who introduced it to George Washington.
14. The pressure in a bottle of champagne is about 90 pounds per square inch, about three times the pressure in automobile tires.
15. Allegedly, the soil of the Burgundy vineyard Clos de Vougeot is considered so precious that workers are required to scrape it from their shoes before they leave each night
