In today’s world, famous wines have different legends and beautiful stories because wine means both history and culture. Wine is one of the greatest fountainheads of history and culture. You can’t really understand a country’s history and culture without some knowledge of wine. To elaborate on all famous wines would take an encyclopedia set, therefore we will focus on three famous wine brands and three countries or regions: Smirnoff Vodka and Russia, Bacardi Rum and Carribean Sea, Lafite Red Wine and France.

Smirnoff Vodka and Russia

          Vodka is the national alcohol drink of Russia. The word “Vodka” is from the Russian word “вода”, which means water in English. Russians believe that Vodka can make them stronger. In 1818, a crown Vodka distillery ( Pierre Smirnoff Fils), a small family business, was established in Moscow, Russia.

Vodka plays an important role in everyday life. When a Russian greet someone , he usually says “Did you drink? ” instead of “How are you?”. According to a scientific study, an adult Russian usually drink up a bottle of vodka every two days. Therefore, non-Russians usually say that vodka is every Russian man’s “first wife”.

After the great October Revolution of 1917, Lenin, the famous communist leader, said “Vodka and other poisons will bring us back to the age of capitalism”and a national ban on Vodka was in place.  After his death, this ban was lifted by Stalin in the 1930s and Russians could drink freely to deal with the freezing conditions. Nowadays, many Russians believe that two things helped them beat the Nazis Germany: Vodka and Katyusha rocket launchers.

At present, Smirnoff Vodka is called “The World’s No.1 Vodka” and remains a potent and highly flammable form of liquor. According to the news, it is sold in more than 200 countries around the world with a sales of 460 thousand bottles every day.

Bacardi Rum and Caribbean Sea

Rum is an alcoholic beverage distilled from a fermented cane product. The history of rum is also the history of Republic of Cuba because rum originated in Cuba. Bacardi is the largest privately held spirits company in the world, producing and marketing internationally recognized spirits and wines. At present, BACARDI Rum is the world’s best-selling and most-awarded rum.

According to legends, rum is the favorite drink of Pirates of the Caribbean and it is called “wine of pirate”. In 2003, a classic, thrilling, full action movie called “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl ”was made in America. This movie depicted an era (1700-1730 ) when villainous pirates scavenged the Caribbean Sea. In this famous movie, Jack Sparrow, the leading male character and the pirate Captain of the Black Pearl always carries a bottle of rum, a vile drink that turns even the most respectable men into scoundrels. For pirates of the Caribbean, rum can help them kill devils and lead an exciting life. Therefore, rum means freedom, independence and excitement. If their hearts are warm with happiness, they will need a glass of rum and if sorrow chills their hearts, they will need two glasses of rum.

      On February 4, 1862, Mr. Don Facundo Bacardí Massó , a spanish immigrant, started the band “Bacardi Rum” with a dream by buying a small distillery in Santiago de Cuba. Mr. Facundo revolutionized the rum-making process to change the rugged and wild rum into a smooth,light-bodied spirit. Later, the bat was adopted as the symbol of “Bacardi Rum ” because it symbolizes good health, family unity, and good fortune for Spanish and Cuban Taíno Indians. It turned out to be such a huge business success that soon locals began to ask for “el ron del murcielago” – the rum of the bat.

       150 years passed, Bacardi Rum is now the No.1 rum in the world. It is a family story like no other, which started in Cuba in 1800’s and is now celebrating the moments that matter today to our global community.  

Lafite Red Wine and France

The word Lafite comes from the Gascon term “la hite,” which means “small hill.” The history of Lafite red wine is also the history of France. In 1354, Lafite, a French aristocrat, founded the property of Chateau Lafite, which was located in Pauillac, a wine-producing village in the Me Doc region to the North-West Bordeau, France. In 1675, Segur Family purchased this property and planted the majority vineyard. In the 18th century, Segur family refined the wine-making techniques and introduced his wines to the upper classes of French society. Not before long, Nicolas-Alexandre de Segur, a red wine magnate and an important member of Segur family, was named  “Wine Prince” by Louis XV of France and the wine of Chateau Lafite was called“The King’s Wine” accordingly. Based on the historic 1855 Bordeaux Classification proposed by Napoleon III, Chateau Lafite ranked the 1st. In 1868, Chateau Lafite was purchased by Baron James Rothschild with a sky price of 4.5 million francs. As of today, Rothschild family is running Chateau Lafite Rothschild and Lafite red wine continues to be one of the best in the world. 

According to the news, Lafite red wine is the world’s most expensive wine and has some wonderful stories. For example, In 1985, a bottle inscribed with 1787, Lafite, and the letters 'Th.J,'was auctioned off at a auction at a wine auction at Christie's in London. The evidence suggested that the old bottle belonged to Thomas Jefferson, the author of Declaration of Independence and 3rd President of the United States of America. Finally, the bottle was sold for about $157,000 to the Forbes family — the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold at auction.

French people also have some famous saying about wine. For example, Victor Hugo said “God made only water, but man made wine.” For another example, Alexandre Dumas made a famous statement “wine is the intellectual part of a meal while meat is the material”. French writer Charles Baudelaire believes that “ One should always be drunk. That's all that matters...But with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you chose. But get drunk.”

Conclusion

What can be said with confidence about the world’s wine is that on one can deny the fact that wine means both history and culture. Johann Christoph Friedrich Von Schiller, a famous German writer, once made an interesting statement “When the wine goes in, strange things come out”. 

作者：杨瑞安