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The percentage increase in recent searches for a single wine – the 1996 Gaja Barbaresco, according toWine-Searcher. The spike happened when basketball player Carmello Anthony gave Kobe Bryant a magnum of the wine as part of his retirement gift. 1996 was Bryant’s first year in the NBA.

Millions of grape vines were uprooted in South Africa after World War I in order to grow alfalfa.

Answer: True.

South African grape growers uprooted some 10 million vines after the war in order to plant alfalfa to feed—can you believe it?—ostriches. Ostrich feathers were highly fashionable in Europe during the Roaring '20s. The change from grapes to alfalfa was due to economic hardship. South Africa had established a cooperative system at the turn of the 20th century to keep the wine industry from going into economic depression. Although a dozen co-ops were formed, many were unsuccessful. Grape prices plummeted, causing the wine industry to enter another depression after WWI. That's when, seeing an opportunity in feathers, grape growers turned to alfalfa.

Chenin Blanc in 3 Easy Facts

One: The most famous, vibrant chenin blancs of the world come from the Loire Valley of France. The Loire Valley is also the ancestral home of this grape, which arose as a natural cross of savagnin… Continue reading

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