País

País (pie EECE) is the historic grape behind Chile’s table wines. Originally known as criolla chica, pais (the name means “country”) is the same as California’s mission grape. Based on DNA typing, both pais and misson are the Spanish grape listán prieto, brought to Chile, Mexico, and Argentina in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by Spanish conquistadores and missionaries.

The name Burgundy comes from a German tribe that moved around Europe in the early Middle Ages.

Answer: True.

True. Burgundy got its name early in the sixth century, in the aftermath of the fall of the Roman Empire, when the wandering Germanic tribe known as the Burgondes established a settlement in the area. They called it Burgundia. In 534, Burgundia was absorbed into another Germanic entity, the Frankish kingdom established by Clovis, the king of the Franks. Clovis eventually went on to unify the numerous Germanic tribes that operated throughout what was then called Gaul. With Clovis’s coronation, modern France (the name is derived from Franks) was born, and Clovis’s eventual conversion to Christianity established France as a Christian nation. With Christianity in place, the course of Burgundy’s history changed, as it went on to become a nucleus for Catholicism and monastic power.

“Based on chemistry, DNA, ancient texts, art, ethnography and experimental archaeology, it’s clear that as humans, we are set up as biological creatures to drink alcohol.”

—Dr. Patrick McGovern
Director of Biomolecular Archaeology, University of Pennsylvania, speaking at the Origins of Wine Civilization conference at San Francisco Wine School this month.

País

Get WineSpeed