Happy Monday!  After a long and active weekend, it might be a great time to consider a simple stew and a glass of great wine with some delicious crusty bread for dinner tonight.  I plan to post the recipes for some stews this week and discuss some to the vessels designated for making these types of dishes.  However, I thought we might start off the week with a bit of trivia about wine bottles.  I found this interesting and hope that you will too.

Many thanks to the Gurdies Winery for this great discussion of wine bottle sizes.  I am so delighted to have found these folks.  Please look to them at www.thegurdieswinery.com.au for great wine and a wealth of information.  Here is an excerpt for their discussion of bottle sizes (as it relates to building a cellar) in “Everything You Wanted To Know About Big Wine Bottles But Were Too Drunk To Ask”.

‘Balthazar –

The name seems to have come from the reference to King, as in king sized. The Balthazar holds 16 bottles or 12 liters of Champagne or still wine. Balthazar was one of the three wise men of the East who came to worship the infant Jesus. The other two were Gaspar and Melchior. Balthazar was the King of Saba; an African Prince who travelled the furthest of any of the three wise men. He was known as the 'Emperor of Black Men' and his gift of myrrh was a gift of his homeland. Myrrh is an aromatic resin that comes from the bark of thorny African trees. It was prized throughout the Holy Land two thousand years ago, because when the plant was dried and pressed into incense it was said to deter vermin from invading the household. Symbolically, myrrh is said to represent suffering. It was for this reason that Balthazar chose to bring to Jesus a gift of such meaning. At the age of 112, on the day of the Feast of the Epiphany, Balthazar died after saying prayers at the temple.’

The Feast of the Epiphany is the last of the 12 Days of Christmas and celebrates the Magi, of which he was one.  Cool, huh?  Great story!  Pop by the Gurdies website and pick up some of the great info and wine available there.

Regards and Pura Vida