10 Weird Things You Never Knew About Wine

You know when you’re at a cocktail party and stuck in a boring conversation and not really sure what to say? Yeah, us too. The next time that happens, though, we’re going to swirl our glass of cabernet and rattle off a few of these weird wine facts.

1. Not all wines are vegan. Some go through a filtration process that uses animal byproducts like gelatin.

2. Wine-flavored Kit Kats are a thing. You can only get them in Japan (and on Amazon), but still.

3. Italy has a free, 24-hour wine fountain. It just opened and yes, we’ve already booked our trip.

4. “Drinking to one’s health” started in ancient Greece. The idea was that the host drank the first cup of wine to show his guests he wasn’t poisoning them.

5. Toasting started in ancient Rome. When Romans would drop a piece of toasted bread into each glass to temper excessive acidity.

6. The world’s oldest bottle is, like, really old. Specifically, it dates back to 325 A.D. and is on display in a museum in Speyer, Germany.

7. Hammurabi’s Code (1800 B.C.) had a law about wine. Fraudulent wine sellers were to be punished by drowning in a river. (Whoa.)

8. Women are better wine tasters. Because wine tasting has so much to do with smell, and women (especially those of reproductive age) have a better sense of smell than men. #GirlPower

9. Not all wines improve with age. In fact, 90 percent of wines should be consumed within a year of production.

10. Oenophobia (fear of wine) is a real thing. It’s a real thing, but we do not have it.