1.The oldest bottle of wine (that still contains the drink) was found in Germany and dates back to 325AD. You can see it on display at the Historisches Museum der Pfalz in Speyer, the town near where it was found. There was at one point a discussion whether experts should open and taste it!
2.The oldest named wine in the world can be found in Cyprus - a dessert wine named Commandaria. It was first made some 5000 years ago, but was given the name Commandaria by crusading knights in the 12th or 13th century. King Richard the Lionheart is quoted as calling it “the wine of kings and the king of wines”.
3.The oldest wine cellar we know of is in Israel’s ancient city of Kabri. A cellar dating back 3700 years has been found with jars that would have stored around 3000 bottles of wine (in today’s sizes). Residue left in the jars sug- gests that both red and white wines were stored there, with additives including mint, cinnamon and juniper bark.
4.The oldest wine drunk in modern times is thought to be some champagne which was found on a shipwreck near to Finland. The bubbly is thought to be around 200 years old, and according to tasters showed hints of lime blossoms, coffee and honey. 168 bottles in total were found, and at first were thought to be undrinkable - until a diver took a cheeky sip of a bottle that had been ‘accidentally’ opened...
5.The oldest depiction of winemaking in art that we know of is on the Standard of Ur, a Sumerian panel dating back 5000 years.
6.The oldest evidence of winemaking has been found dating back to 8000BC in the Middle East - archaeological digs in Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan have all found collections of grape pips, which most experts agree is evidence of deliberate winemaking.
7.The most expensive bottle of wine sold at auction was a 1787 vintage Lafite. In addition to its exceptional rarity, it also happened to once belong to Thomas Jefferson who had etched his name on it! The buyer paid $156,450 for the unique item.
8.A Chateau d’Yquem from the same year - also owned by Jefferson - broke the record for the most expensive white wine sold at auction, at a price of $56,588.
9.The question of what is the most expensive bottle of wine ever is a difficult one to resolve however. At a wine dinner, a Chateau Margaux from (you guessed it) 1787 was broken when it was being shown to a crowd of 193 peo- ple at an upmarket dinner. In his insurance claim, the wine dealer who owned valued it at $225,000 - and the insurance company paid up!
10.The world’s most expensive champagne is called Taste of Diamonds... and unsurprisingly for its asking price of $1.8m actually features a real diamond. Of course, there are likely to be much better champagnes available in terms of taste, but for sheer show-off value you can’t beat this crazy bit of bling.
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