Welcome to blog number 200!

Yes, that’s right. Almost 4 years ago (Wednesday, Jan 18, 2018 to be precise) we brought you the first of our wine education blogs. Who would have thought we’d still be doing it 200 editions later?!

To celebrate (?!), I’m going to come up with as many “200” themed wine facts as I can.

(Clearly, I need to get out more if this is my idea of celebrating, but anyway…)

Let’s see how many I can find…

• To make 200 litres of wine you would need around 285 kilograms of grapes. 

According to the AWRI (Australian Wine Research Institute) the mean extraction rate between 2007-08 and 2019-20 for white wine was 687 L/ tonne (range: 651-733L/tonne) and for red wine was 714 L/tonne (range 689- 733 L/tonne), making a combined mean around 700 L/tonne (or 70%).

• A grape grower will harvest around 1,250 kg of grapes from 200 grapevines.

On average, growers harvest 10,000 kg grapes per hectare and there are around 1600 grapevines per hectare (again, on average).

• A 200-year-old bottle of wine meant for Napoleon was sold at auction for US$30,000

The 200-year-old bottle of Grand Constance was supposed to make its way from South Africa to the island of St. Helena in 1821. Napoleon reportedly had been living there at the time in exile. But he died that year while the grapes were still on the vine.

• Last year, China introduced interim tariffs on Australian wine of up to 200%. They’re claiming Australian winemakers sold wine below the cost of production and had been subsidised.

Read more about why this happened and how it has affected the Australian wine industry in this blog post.

• Fruit for sparkling wine is often picked at between 180g/L and 200g/L sugar. Fruit for a table wine between 200-250g/L.

Read all about how this sugar is turned into alcohol in this blog post.

• The largest wine bottle on earth holds 200 glasses!

It’s the size of 40 standard bottles and is called a Melchizedek or Midas. Something to consider for the next Somerled bottling, Rob??!

• 200 years ago, New South Wales was producing prize-winning wines.

In 1822 one won a silver medal and in 1828 another won a gold medal at the Royal Society of Art in London.

• Grapevines were planted in Tasmania 200 years ago.

Around 1823, ex-convict Bartholomew Broughton planted vines and fruit trees at Prospect creating what became Tasmania’s first commercial vineyard.

• Champagne sold in France during the early 1800s often had 200 grams of residual sugar.

To get your head around what this would have tasted like… by comparison, one of the sweetest wines around these days (a late-harvest desert wine from the Napa Valley) contains 250g/L in an average year!

• Other wines which contain 200(ish)g/L…

Pedro Ximenez (super sweet sherry from Spain)

Icewein (concentrated, botrytised wine from Germany)

Rutherglen Muscat (although that’s closer to 300!)

Sorry guys… I’m running out of facts!

Anyone got any others they’d like to share? 

Or any other questions you’d like answered? I love it when you ask me questions!

And while we’re talking about you… I’d like to say an enormous thank to everyone who keeps coming back each week to read my ramblings. 

And an especially big thank you to everyone who comments… either online or in person at the Cellar Bar. This blog is for you and to know that you’re following along and even learning a thing or two along the way makes it all worthwhile!

You’re the best!