Savoie, sometimes spelled Savoy: Two different pronunciations have surfaced, perhaps as a regional thing. The first is “Sav-wa,” and the second is “Sav-oi.” It’s kind of like the difference between saying cow or bovine. This tiny little pimple of France has been endowed with viticulture for at least 2,000 years. What is the viticultural history of Savoy? Where is it exactly? What grapes are grown here? What bottle of wine would you expect City Vino to have on the shelf? Let us dive in.
The Guanches: One reference indicated that the Guanches might have been in the Canary Islands in the first millennium B.C. and were the first ones to inhabit the islands. About this time, the Phoenicians and Romans were pushing expansion limits all around the Mediterranean and up the Portugal coast, but there seems little evidence to support expansion beyond the Mediterranean and southward.
When you hear "Austria," your mind might drift to the soaring notes of The Sound of Music, or the snow-capped Alps glittering in the sun. But while those hills are indeed alive with music and beauty, they are not home to vineyards. The heart of Austrian wine lies not in the west, where the Alps dominate, but in the east, where the hills roll gently and the Danube River snakes its way through valleys steeped in history and vines.
San Luis, the person, not the place, had a rough start. It was 1284, and little San Luis was just 10 years old, he became a political prisoner, held hostage in Catalonia by the King of Aragon for nearly seven years. This wasn’t uncommon for the time, his father was Charles II of Anjou, King of Naples, and young Luis was the heir. In the late 13th century, royal families negotiated peace not with signatures but with sons. In this case, San Luis paid the price for dynastic diplomacy.
Maybe the better question is—what was the birth of civilization? Marat Yanki of Vinkara Winery in Turkey may have said it best. He said that even nomads can cultivate wheat for a season. But that doesn’t mean they’re a tribe or a society. They simply go where the wind blows and plant wheat somewhere new the next year.
