Wine Fun Facts

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Wine Fun Facts

One 750 ml bottle of wine contains 4 ½ glasses of wine.
A vintage date on the label indicates that 95% or more of the wine is produced from grapes grown in that year.
“Estate Bottled” means that 100% of the wine came from grapes grown on land owned or controlled by the winery located in the viticultural area.
When dining out at a fine restaurant, it is quite common for the server to present the cork after removing it from the bottle. Should you smell it? Go ahead if you like tradition, but the fact is smelling the cork will tell you very little about the wine. Instead, focus on smelling and tasting the wine; only then will you know if it is satisfactory.
If you store a bottle of wine at 70° F rather than 55° F, it will age twice as fast.
As a rule of thumb, most red wines will benefit from breathing. White wines that have had 12 or more months aging may also benefit from decanting. The idea is to expose the maximum surface to the air to help open up the fruit flavors and develop the wine’s true character.
Wine re-corked and placed in a refrigerator will keep for two to four days.
Cook only with a wine you would drink. Avoid at all costs the so-called ‘cooking wine’ located in the super market near the vinegar. Cooking wine is generally poor quality and they often contain salt and other additives.
Old wine almost never turns to vinegar. It spoils by oxidation.
Wine has so many organic chemical compounds it is considered more complex than blood serum.
170 years is the average age of a French oak tree harvested for use in wine barrels.
Portugal has 1/3 of the world’s cork forests and supplies which is about 90% of the cork used in the United States .
There are 10,000 varieties of wine grapes worldwide.
The first wine grapes in California were planted in Downtown Los Angeles in 1833 at the current site of the Union Train Station.
The synthetic cork offers consistency in wines with a lesser chance of oxidation and a great alternative to natural cork.


©2007 Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce and Visitor & Convention Bureau 614 South Broadway, Santa Maria, CA 93454-5111	Phone: 800-331-3779 Fax: 805-928-7559 email: info@santamaria.com

Wine Fun Facts

One 750 ml bottle of wine contains 4 ½ glasses of wine.

A vintage date on the label indicates that 95% or more of the wine is produced from grapes grown in that year.

“Estate Bottled” means that 100% of the wine came from grapes grown on land owned or controlled by the winery located in the viticultural area.

If you store a bottle of wine at 70° F rather than 55° F, it will age twice as fast.

As a rule of thumb, most red wines will benefit from breathing. White wines that have had 12 or more months aging may also benefit from decanting. The idea is to expose the maximum surface to the air to help open up the fruit flavors and develop the wine’s true character.

Wine re-corked and placed in a refrigerator will keep for two to four days.

Cook only with a wine you would drink. Avoid at all costs the so-called ‘cooking wine’ located in the super market near the vinegar. Cooking wine is generally poor quality and they often contain salt and other additives.

Old wine almost never turns to vinegar. It spoils by oxidation.

Wine has so many organic chemical compounds it is considered more complex than blood serum.

170 years is the average age of a French oak tree harvested for use in wine barrels.

Portugal has 1/3 of the world’s cork forests and supplies which is about 90% of the cork used in the United States .

There are 10,000 varieties of wine grapes worldwide.

The first wine grapes in California were planted in Downtown Los Angeles in 1833 at the current site of the Union Train Station.

The synthetic cork offers consistency in wines with a lesser chance of oxidation and a great alternative to natural cork.