Interesting Wine Facts

We all love our wine but little do we pay attention to all things behind that delightful bottle in our hand. Let’s get to know our favourite beverage a little better in a series of blogs to follow:

• If you go back in time to trace the origins of wine, then you would find that it was actually the people of Mesopotamia who first produced this drink of the divine in 6000 B.C.
• Most of the wines today comprise of 86% water, 11-12% alcohol and remaining 2-3% other compounds. These “other” compounds are over 250 different types. No wonder wine making and drinking is considered an art and not science.
• You’ll be amazed to know that there are twenty four thousand varieties of wine grapes with five to ten thousand actual varieties. However, till now, just about hundred and fifty of these varieties are commercially used.
• Around six to eight hundred grapes i.e. 2.4 pounds are used to make one bottle (750 ml) or 4 glasses of wine.
• The fragrance given out by a young wine is termed as its ‘aroma’ whereas mature wines’ smell is called ‘bouquet’.
• Interestingly, human feet are considered best to crush grapes. This is because when we crush grapes with our feet, the grapes are broken, the skins are mashed and mixed with the juices but the grape seeds don’t get broken which otherwise give the wine a bitter taste.
• In Australia, same amount of wine is consumed and exported to other countries. We consume as well export about 400,000,000 litres of wine every year. It would also be interesting to note that 40% of the total wine sale in Australia is done online. This shows that trend to buy wine online has really caught up well with people.