Wine Traditions

With the Holidays coming up, I started being nostalgic, and began reminiscing about my family's traditions. I began remembering how we would put out cookies for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph, and on Christmas morning the cookies would be gone and the carrot would be...half gone. Each Thanksgiving my Aunt makes Pineapple Stuffing, even if we don't have ham, because it's everyone's favorite.  We drink "glurg" at my Great Aunts annual holiday party, which is hot mulled wine with rum, lots of rum. I'm sure you've noticed that most of my memories revolve around food, and after thinking about eating all these holiday treats I began thinking about...wine.

Wine has many traditions as well. Some have been phased out, but others still hold true even if their original purpose doesn't. In lieu of the season of so many traditions, I wanted to share some of wine's fun, far fetched and interesting traditions and history.

While foil caps are now used to make a bottle of wine look polished and nicely packaged, its original purpose was something quite different.  Originally, foil caps on wine bottles were made out of lead. The reason for the lead caps was to deter the rats from eating through the corks and spoiling the wine. The lead, being poisonous, killed the rats and thus saved the wine.

Ever notice the large indentation at the bottom of your bottle? Well I can confirm its not a rouse to cheat you out of wine. There are actually quite a few theories on the origin of this dimple, which is called a "punt" .One theory was that the punt was originally used for riddling. Riddling is the act of rotating Champagne bottles so that the sediment would settle in the neck of the bottle, making it easier to extract. Another theory is that when bottles were being hand blown, the punt made it so the bottle would not topple over as easily and the seam of the glass would not scratch the table. Now the punt is used for packaging purposes, but also makes pouring wine with one hand much easier.

Now this one has not been proven yet, but it seemed too fun to not mention. And this is the tradition of toasting glasses. It has been said that the purpose for clinking glasses was so that the liquid inside the glass would spill into one another and make sure no one tried to poison just one glass. I don't know if it's true, but it sure is interesting!

One holiday tradition we have here at San Pasqual winery is our Mulled Wine. We make it using our
Passion fruit wine and our Cabernet Syrah blend. We infuse it with mulling spices and sparkling apple cider. It is the perfect drink for those chilly winter nights. Come in and enjoy a glass or grab a " Mulled Wine Kit" to take home and enjoy on your couch. Until the days become longer again, one way to enjoy the long night is by sipping some mulled wine.