Saturday, May 23, 2015
East Oregonian
National
Page 11A
WINE DAY
There is no official document supporting the origin and purpose of
this holiday. Rumors suspect it’s creation to arise from a blogger, a
winery or wine retail store. As to its purpose, the unanimous
assumption is it being a perfect excuse to drink wine legitimately.
In 1867, Archaeologists in Speyer,
Germany discovered the oldest
bottle of wine in existence while
they were excavating two Roman
stone sarcophaguses. It dates back
to at least 325 AD. The bottle of
wine is now on display at the
History Museum of the Pfalz in
Germany.
The custom of bumping glasses
with a “cheers” greeting came from
old Rome where they used this
method to make sure no one is
trying to poison the other
(bumping glasses makes the drink
spill from one cup to the other).
This tradition started even earlier
in ancient Greece - where the host
was to drink the first cup of wine
to show his guests he does not
intend to poison them.
The world champion of recognizing wine by smell was crowned in 2003.
Richard Juhlin, a sport ed from Sweden, was able to recognize 43 wines out of
50. For comparison, second place was only able to recognize 4 of them.