So last week, we celebrated Open That Bottle Night, or OTBN, the day each year when you pull out your very special, but more often than not oldie moldy bottles of wine. It got me thinking about other wine days. And oh my goodness. There are so many national wine days, and interional wine days, it’s hard to keep track. Today, we’re going to explore all of these WINEderful days.
For this article, I used four sites: WineCountry, Wine Folly, Wine Lovers Village and Traveling Corkscrew. Interestingly, not all of the holidays show up on all of the sites. Traveling Corkscrew had the most listings.
Where Did National Days Come From?
Tampa Bay TImes says, “The answer starts with online calendars that list the supposed ‘holidays.’ There are dozens of varying popularity, but highly Googleable sites like National Day Calendar (nationaldaycalendar.com) and Days of the Year (daysoftheyear.com), which display about 1,200 and 1,500 days respectively, are at the top. For food holidays in particular, it’s Foodimentary (foodimentary.com), which regularly broadcasts 450 food holidays to its more than 850,000 Twitter followers.”
On January 1 alone, there are seven national days: World Day of Peace, Polar Bear Plunge Day, First Foot Day, Euro Day, National Bloody Mary Day, National Hangover Day, New Year’s Day. Now, let’s focus on the national wine days. I might even throw a few international wine days in too.
January National Wine Days
Traveling Corkscrew is the only site with a January holiday. They say that this past January 10 was the third celebration of Champagne and French Fries Day. YUM!!!
All the other sites talk about January being a regrouping month. But hey, I’ll take Champagne and french fries every day!
February National Wine Days
We have six days to celebrate in February:
- Feb. 1 – Furmint Day. Furmint is an underrated Hungarian grape.
- Feb. 2 – Happy Birthday to South African Wine (#happybirthdaySAwine). February 2023 marked the 364th anniversary of the South African wine industry.
- Feb. 5 – National Rosé Day (Australia and New Zealand). I’m happy to celebrate this holiday, even though I’m not in ANZ.
- February 16 – International Syrah Day
- February 18 – Global Drink Wine Day
- Last Saturday in Feb. – OTBN
March Days
There are only two wine days in March, and all four sites listed them:
- March 3 – National Mulled Wine Day
- March 13 – International Riesling Day
April Days
In April, we have four celebration days:
- Apr. 14 – Tannat Day
- Apr. 17 – International Malbec Day
- Apr. 27 – World Marselan Day. Marselan is a red French wine grape variety that is a cross between Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache.
- Apr. 28 – International Viognier Day
May Days
So many days, so little time:
- The First Friday in May – International Sauvignon Blanc Day. This official day originated from New Zealand, whos Sauvignon Blanc is the country’s most important grape.
- May 9 – World Moscato Day
- May 17 – National Pinot Grigio Day
- May 24 – The Anniversary of the Judgment of Paris. A day to commemorate the wines of California making their world debut in France is a big deal. This is a day to drink a great California chardonnay or cabernet, which are the wines that beat out their French counterparts in this infamous competition over 40 years ago.
- May 25 – National Wine Day
- May 26 – International and National Chardonnay Day
June National Wine Days
Again, many days, and even weeks, to celebrate with wine!
- June 10 – Durif Day. Durif is the man who, in the late 1800s, created what we know to be Petite Sirah. He named his wine after himself, but the wine tasted bad in France. So it all but disappeared, until a grape called Petite Sirah started showing up in California. In 2000, UC Davis did all kinds of work to discover that Petite Sirah is Durif. It just tastes better in the States.
- Second Saturday of June – National Rosé Day
- In 2023 – June 11th – 16th – Prosecco Week
- June 13 – National Rosé Day
- June 20 – Drink Chenin Blanc Day. This is a wonderful highly acidic white wine from Loire Valley in France.
- June 21 – Lambrusco Day. This wine from Italy can be sweet, dry, or off-dry, and it is always effervescent or slightly sparkling.
- Last Friday of the month – International Rosé Day
July National Wine Days
This month is a little bit lighter:
- First week of July – Sparkling Wine Week. Wow. Prosecco week last month, and now Sparkling Wine week.
- July 12 – International Cava Day
- July 25 – Wine and Cheese Day
- Fourth Thursday of July – Shiraz Day
August National Days
All kinds of fun ones here:
- Aug. 1-5 – Albariño Week. This is the second oldest wine festival in Spain.
- Aug. 4 – National White Wine Day
- Aug. 13 – International Prosecco Day
- Aug. 18 – Pinot Noir Day
- Aug. 28 (one site said this is on Aug. 30) – National Red Wine Day
- Thursday before Labor Day (this can sometimes fall in Sept.) – International Cabernet Day
September National Days
Not too many this month:
- Sept. 1 – International Cap Classique Day. This is a term used in South Africa for traditional Sparkling Wine making.
- First Friday in Sept. – National Chianti Day
- Sept. 9 – International Box Wine Day. This was started in 2021 by Wine Nook.
- Sept. 10 – International Port Wine Day
- Sept. 15 – International Grenache Day
October National Days
A bunch of new wines to try this month:
- Oct. 5 – Vranec World Day – This is the most important wine grape in Macedonia, a country that happily got onto the national wine days calendar.
- Oct. 6 – National Orange Wine Day
- Second Saturday of Oct. – Pinotage Day. Pinotage is a grape crossing of Cinsaut and Pinot Noir that was invented in South Africa in 1925.
- Oct. 14 – International Prokupac Day. This is the flagship grape of Serbia.
- Oct. 15 – National Champagne Day
- Oct. 22 – Austrian Sekt (Sparkling) Day
- Oct. 26 – International Mavrud Day. Another grape I hadn’t heard of. According to a Bulgarian website, this day aims to promote Bulgarian wines and wine tourism among local and foreign customers.
- Last Thursday in Oct. – Carignan Day
- Fourth Friday in Oct. – Champagne Day
November National Days
Another fun month of wine days:
- First full week of the month – International Sherry Week
- Nov. 7 – National Merlot Day
- Nov. 9 – International Tempranillo Day. A very important grape from Spain.
- Third Wednesday in Nov. – National Zinfandel Day
- Third Thursday in Nov. – Beaujolais Nouveau Day. YUM!
- Nov. 24 – Carménère Day. While this grape originated in France, some of the best comes from Chile.
December National Wine Days
Saving the best for last? Maybe. But we also get a few lesser known ones to try!
- Dec. 1 – International Maratheftiko Day. This is a grape from Cyprus. It’s actually the most important red Cipriot grapes.
- Dec. 4 – Cabernet Franc Day
- Dec. 5 – Prohibition Repeal Day
- Dec. 10 – International Tokaj Aszú Day. Read here about the world’s oldest sweet wine.
- Dec. 16 – Pinot Meunier Day. This grape, along with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, can be used to make Champagne.
- Dec. 20 – Sangria Day
- Dec. 31 – National Champagne Day
I’m going to print this up and do my best to honor a bunch of these national and international wine days. How about you?
