01/05

The first London Cocktail bar opened in the Gore House in the vicinity of
Hyde Park (1851).

The French government issued the first law which, among other
things, specified the geographical conditions permitting brandy to be
labeled as cognac, by defining the so called terroirs delimitées, territories
upon which the liquor had to be distilled. (1909).

05/05

Joe Russell, owner of the famous Sloppy Joe’s Bar near Florida’s Key
West and probably Ernest Hemingway’s companion, moved his
establishment from the previous address to the current one (1937).

06/05

In Starý Plzenec, the red sparkling wine “Black Widow,” considered to be Bohemia Sekt’s (Českomoravské vinařské závody, a.s. Starý Plzenec) first product, saw the light of day for the first time (1945).

07/05

King Charles IV permitted the aldermen and councilors of the royal town of Litoměřice to parcel out the hillsides around Radobyl and establish vineyards there (1359).

08/05

On Veleslavín street in Plzeň (Pilsen) the gala opening of the Brewery Museum took place (1959).
That night, late but extreme frost befell the Cognac region, causing a very low crop of grapes which, after processing, yielded only 24 000 hl of eau-de-vie, i.e. only about one fifth of the pre-war production (1945).

12/05

13/05

World Cocktail Day * This International event was initiated in 1999 by the
Be bop Bar of the Radisson Hotel SAS Alcron Prague, to
commemorate the day when the term cocktail was first defined in the
United States (1806 in the periodical The Balance) (1999).

Rudolf Slavík’s Bartenders Library was opened (1999).

14/05

450 corkscrews from the collection of Bernard Wastney, founder of the International Correspondence of Corkscrew Addicts, were sold by auction at Christie’s (1997).

15/05

The French government issued a law which - after some previous specifications - provided the basic legislation regarding the use of the word cognac, including the mandatory minimum two year period for the maturing of eau-de-vie in the cask.(1936).

17/05

In his letter from London to his employer M. Moet, M. Jeanson wrote: “How the taste in this country has changed during the past ten years. Now almost everyone demands dry wine.” (1790)

18/05

The opening night of Jack Wildishes play “The Mulberry Garden”, in which one of the characters, Mr. Sedley, sends for “another dozen bottles of champagne.” (1668).

20/05

Marcus Lynch leased a piece of land from viscount Midleton in Cork, Ireland, and on it he built a wool clothes factory. However, the buildings were to have a different history. In the future they were to become a distinguished distillery (1796)

21/05

The Genevoise, the International Association of Hotel, Restaurant and Café employees, was established in Switzerland; in the first half of the 20th century it temporarily hosted some national bartender clubs under its roof (1877).
the Spirit of St. Louis Cocktail was served at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris in honor of Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic. Its ingredients were gin, egg white, grenadine and Fleur D’Oranger (1927).

23/05

In Bern, Switzerland, within the framework of the IGV /International Genever Verband/, an international union of employees in the hotel industry/ bartender club was established (1927).

25/05

By a royal decree, champagne for local consumption and for export was to be delivered to ports in Normandy exclusively in bottles (1728).
James B. Sherwood dispatched the first Venice-Simplon-Orient Express from London to Venice. Among other, the train included historical dining cars whose interior decoration had been restored with piety to the minutest detail under supervision by Gerard Gallet from Paris (1982).

26/05

A law on viticulture and winery and on changes of some of the correlated legal provisions was issued in the Czech Republic (1995).

30/05

Born- Vilém Kraus, since 1991 teacher of viticulture at Mendel’s University of Agriculture and Forestry in Brno (1924).