The Modern Era
Since so much has happened in the last 50 years in wine, we’ve added some additional notes about the modern era below:
- 1964 Sangria introduced to the US at the World’s Fair in Seattle, WA
- 1965 Box Wine invented in South Australia
- 1972 First Corkscrews were used by Swiss winery called Hammel.
- 1975 Zinfandel and Primitivo linked as the same (later confirmed by DNA profiling in 1994)
- 1976 Judgement of Paris and first issue of Wine Spectator
- 1980’s The Tonia Group begins to import vitas vinifera (Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon) to India
- 1982 Cork taint is identified as a wine fault.
- 1983 Modern outbreak of Phylloxera in Napa
- 1985 Austria is exposed for adding diethylene glycol, a poisonous substance, to wine. Although no recorded illness or deaths occurred, the scandal completely collapsed the Austrian wine market. One of the convicted Wagram winemakers, Karl Grill, proprietor of Firma Gebrüder Grill, committed suicide after being sentenced.
- 1994 Chile discovers their ‘Merlot’ is actually the lost grape of Bordeaux called Carmenere. DNA profiling confirms in 1997.
- 2005 Chateau Hansen in Inner Mongolia (the Gobi dessert) China opens
- 2010 Most expensive wine ever auctioned – 1869 Lafite-Rothschild sold for $230,000
- 2012 Wine Grapes comes out with 1368 ‘official wine grapes’
- 2012 Penfold’s debuts 2004 Block 42: the world’s most expensive non-auction bottle of wine 2004
- 2012 Christies has 1st online wine auction
- 2016 $1 Billion “Wine City” to open in Yantai, China
