Madness: March Has Five Wednesdays This Year

Hello folks -

It's that time of the year again: The Charleston Wine + Food Festival is once again upon us. All around town will be signature events, wine dinners, music, seminars and the Culinary Village in its Sophomore year at Riverfront Park. 

The Shop will be open it's regularly scheduled hours all week, but as the Festival Opening falls on Wednesday evening we're unfortunately going to have to skip our Weekly Tasting this week. But the good news is that March 2023 has five Wednesdays in it so we'll still get our normal four tastings in!

While speaking of good news, the Pour Choices monthly subscription box will be ready for pickup on the 1st! This month we'll be playing around with the March proverb that the month comes in like a lion but goes out like a lamb. The "Lion" will be Sohm & Kracher's Gruner Veltliner's LION. This is from the Three Michelin Star Restaurant Le Bernardin Sommelier, Aldo Sohm. Adorning the label for Domaine L'Ecu's "Taurus" Muscadet is a stained-glass church window with a lamb on it. This "lamb" is from 'The Pope of Muscadet,' Guy Bossard. And in-between these two is a Gamay, Syrah and Grenache blend from some folks in the Loire Valley doing the Good Work and helping support other Loire farmers who have lost a consistent 60% of their crop three years running.

Tastings will resume next Wednesday, the 8th. But to tide you over until then, and the rest of the madness March has to offer (Julius Caesar, Saint Patrick's Day, etc), here are some fun wine facts for you to enjoy:

• The phrase ‘to drink a toast’ comes from ancient Rome, where it was customary to drop pieces of toasted bread into wine to temper any sharp or acidic flavors. 
• In Abruzzo, Italy there is a wine fountain that dispenses free red wine 24/7. It was created primarily to serve those walking the popular 196-mile Cammino di San Tommaso pilgrimage route between Rome and Ortona. But anyone is welcome to visit the vineyard and enjoy a free drink in the beautiful surroundings. 
• Divers exploring the historic wreck of the Titanic were surprised to find that many of the wine bottles in the ship’s cellar remain intact despite the boat sitting at a depth of 12,000 feet below the surface. The bottles were not removed but left undisturbed aboard the ship. 
• A standard wine bottle holds 750 milliliters of wine. A Large Format Nebuchadnezzar, an oversized wine bottle, is the equivalent of twenty standard wine bottles.

• Madeira, a fortified wine from the island of Madeira off of Portugal and a fan favorite among the founding fathers, likely because it was easier to transport across the Atlantic compared to table wines, was used to toast both the signing of the Declaration of Independence and George Washington’s inauguration.

• Veuve Clicquot was Jackie Kennedy's favorite Champagne. 

• There are about 49,000,000 bubbles in a single bottle of Champagne.
• The first reference to a corkscrew appeared in a museum catalog in England in 1681.
• Available almost exclusively in Japan, wine-flavored Kit-Kats are a thing.
• In ancient Greece, the host of dinner would take the first sip of wine to assure that the wine served to guests wasn't poisoned. The act of courtesy was where the phrase "drinking to one's health" originated.

 So cheers to all that and we'll see you soon!

Salud,

The Wine Shop Team