• Wine is fat free and contains no cholesterol. A 4-ounce glass of table wine has about 80-100 calories.

• Just how many grapes are in that bottle of wine? It takes about six to eight clusters, or approximately 600 to 800 wine grapes (2.4 lbs), to make a bottle of wine.

• One barrel of wine contains 740 lbs of grapes, equivalent to 59 gallons or 24.6 cases of wine.

• A vintage date on the label indicates that 95% or more of the wine is produced from grapes grown in that year.

• “Estate Bottled” means that 100% of the wine came from grapes grown on land owned or controlled by the winery located in the viticultural area.

• When dining out at a fine restaurant, it is quite common for the server to present the cork after removing it from the bottle.  Should you smell it?  Go ahead if you like tradition, but the fact is smelling the cork will tell you very little about the wine.  Instead, focus on smelling and tasting the wine; only then will you know if it is satisfactory.

• As a rule of thumb, most red wines will benefit from breathing.  White wines that have had 12 or more months aging may also benefit from decanting.  The idea is to expose the maximum surface to the air to help open up the fruit flavors and develop the wine’s true character.

• Wine re-corked and placed in a refrigerator will keep for two to four days.

• Cook only with a wine you would drink.  Avoid at all costs the so-called ‘cooking wine’ located in the super market near the vinegar.  Cooking wine is generally poor quality and they often contain salt and other additives.

• Old wine almost never turns to vinegar.  It spoils by oxidation.

• 170 years is the average age of a French oak tree harvested for use in wine barrels.

• Portugal has 1/3 of the world’s cork forests and supplies which is about 90% of the cork used in the United States .

• There are 10,000 varieties of wine grapes worldwide.