January 27th - This Date in Wine History

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Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

  • Dante Alighieri is exiled from Florence.  In exile he wrote his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy.  In his vision of hell, gluttons and drunkards are fed to Cerebus in the third level.

  • Shah Abbas I of Persia was born in 1571.  There are paintings of the Shah being handed wine to drink despite Islams prohibitions against it.

  • In 1659, Jan van Riebeeck, the founder of Cape Town, produced the first known wine in South Africa.

  • California's Stags Leap District AVA was designated in 1989.