Some Interesting Facts About Wine

From A History of the World in Six Glasses:

1. The age of wine began in the middle of the first millennium BC, dethroning beer as the most cultured and civilized drinks.
2. The Greeks were the first to produce wine on a large commercial scale.
3. It was drunk at formal drinking parties (symposia) where drinkers would try to outdo each other in wit, poetry, or rhetoric.
   
4. Greeks mixed their wine with water before consumption. Drinking wine neat was looked down upon.
5. The Greeks spread their wine and their knowledge of wine cultivation to Sicily, southern Italy, and southern France.
   
6. The Italian peninsula became the world's foremost wine-producing region around 146 BC.
7. Today, the world's leading producers of wine are France, Italy, and Spain. The leading consumers of wine are Luxembourg, France, and Italy (drinking 55 liters per person per year).
   

In a series
1. Beer
2. Wine
3. Spirits
4. Coffee
5. Tea
6. Coke