#wine-history

#wine-history

Just an hour west of St. Louis, set along some of Missouri's most gorgeous scenery, is the tiny town of Augusta. The population hovers around 300 people, and it's still a hidden gem for most people not from the Show-Me State. However, this slow-paced small town is also home to one of the richest wine-making traditions in the U.S.-so much so that it actually earned the title of the first American Viticulture Area (an official wine-growing region) back in 1980.

The Willamette Valley had vineyards in the 1800s, but Prohibition and market forces kept it from becoming a true winemaking region until the 1960s, when rows of cool-climate grapes like pinot noir and chardonnay began to crawl across the Dundee and Tualatin Hills. A few wineries grew to more than 700 today, making the Willamette Valley a global wine sensation. Along the way, a handful of bottles helped define the valley's distinctive character.

The Römerswein, or Speyer wine bottle, is the oldest known unopened wine bottle, dating between 325 and 359 AD, discovered in a Roman tomb.