• The longest recorded champagne cork flight was 177 feet and 9 inches, four feet from level ground at Woodbury Vineyards in New York State.

• Thomas Jefferson helped stock the wine cellars of the first five U.S. presidents and was very partial to fine Bordeaux and Madeira.

• Chilling tones down the sweetness of wine. If a red wine becomes too warm, it may lose some of its fruity flavor.

• The Irish believe that fairies are extremely fond of good wine.

• Foot treading of grapes is still used in producing a small quantity of the best port wines.

Today’s Food History

 

• 1789 R.I.P. Anders Dahl. A renowned Swedish botanist, the Dahlia flower was named for him.
• 1877 Minnesota’s $1.00 per bushel bounty on grasshopper eggs expires. The state had experienced a 4 year grasshopper (locust) plague.
• 1882 The first frozen mutton from New Zealand arrived in Britain
• 1973 Wrexham Asda supermarket opened in the U.K.
• 1986 Six million Americans participate in ‘Hand Across America’ by holding hands and singing across 4,150 miles of road in support of the hungry and homeless.
• 2007 Coca Cola created a 3,000 gallon, 15 foot high ice cream float with Vanilla Coke and ice cream, and set a new world record for the largest ice cream float.  The float was certified as drinkable by health inspectors, but it was disposed of by a garbage company.  Coke also held the previous record from 1998 with a 2,085 gallon float.