1908

Year that Mother’s Day was first celebrated in the U.S., although it didn’t become a national holiday until 1914. (Father’s Day was inaugurated almost 60 years later in 1972.) Mother’s Day is celebrated in more than 46 countries throughout the world. We respectfully think your Mom would love a copy of The Wine Bible as a Mother’s Day gift. (It was written by a Mom btw). You can get a signed, personalized copy here.

California makes Port.

Answer: False.

False. True Port is a sweet fortified wine that must come from the Douro Valley of northern Portugal, in the same way that true Champagne can only come from the Champagne region of France. The Ports produced in the Douro are majestic-deep, complex, rich, thick, and thoroughly hedonistic-and considered among the most sophisticated wines in the world. In California, sweet fortified wines are made, but they aren’t Port. Confusingly, many of these wines used to be called “Port,” and some still are, despite the fact that in 2006, the United States Tax and Trade Bureau recognized the international agreement prohibiting domestic producers from using the generic terms “Port” or “Port-style” on fortified wine labels.

“By far the most important thing for me from the [Judgement of Paris tasting], apart from it being a ‘win-win’ for both France and California, as the former was resting on its laurels and needed ‘a kick up the backside’ and the latter needed recognition, was that it created a template whereby little-known wines of quality could be tasted blind alongside well-known wines of quality and if the tasters themselves were of impeccable quality, their judgements would be respected.”

—Steven Spurrier (1941-2021), on the outcome of the famous 1976 tasting of French and California wines he helped orchestrate.

1908

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