01/07

Masters Michel, Re, Angelli and Baudino all signed the Memorandum of Association of the Distilleria Nazionale di Spirito da Vino, which developed into the well known Martini & Rossi (1847).

04/07

Independence Day in the USA (2001); try the 4th of July Tooter on this day. Carefully pour one layer after another of 3 cl of grenadine, vodka and blue curacao.
Duncan MacElhone donated part of his earnings for the sales of his Liberty cocktail (Bourbon, Martini Extra Dry, Lime Juice Cordial, Southern Mist) to the French-American Committee for the Restoration of the Statue of Liberty (1986).

06/07

Burnt at the stake in Constance, Master Jan Hus, rector of Charles University, who in his treatise on feasts unwittingly listed the technologically diverse types of Czech beer. “And though thou hast never been to Bohemia, St. Bernat, but let me tell thee that they also have old beer, young beer, thick beer and thin beer.” (1415).
Swiss citizens, by vote, initiated the 32nd article of the constitution, according to which “ The production, import, transport, sale and receiving for the purpose of selling of the liqueur called absinth is forbidden on the whole territory of the Swiss Commonwealth.” (1908). The English doctor Frobrig, who had arrived in Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) with count Plettenberg-Mietingen’s retinue, stayed at the house “At the three Larks ”. Before he left, he gave the local pharmacist Josef Becher a recipe for a cordial known today as Karlovarská (Carlsbad) Becherovka. (1805)

07/07

The head bartender of the Paris hotel George V, Rudolf Slavík, won the competition of the leading European bartenders organized by the United States Lines on the ship Leviathan. Its namesake drink consisted of 2cl of orange juice, 2cl of red vermouth and 4cl of cognac and also 2 dashes of Grand Marnier (1934).

10/07

The production of the Bohemia Sekt demi sec brand, “the sparkling wine of the upper ten million” was launched (1970).

21/07

Vladislav Jagiello confirmed the regulation according to which - after St. Gall’s Day - all wines in Prague towns had to be tested for quality, and those found inferior in any respect, were to be destroyed (1497).

22/07

French Members of Parliament and senators passed a new version of the law defining the champagne producing area which - with small amendments - is in force to this day (1927).

26/07

In Harry’s New York Bar in Paris, J. Henry Cochrane from Pennsylvania set the world speed record in beer-drinking: he managed to down 2 litres in 11 seconds (1932).

27/07

Deceased-Angelo Zola, the Italian who had been elected president of the International Bartenders Association three times, and had in all spent 15 years in the chair (1977).

28/07

In reaction to the excessive drinking of the people of Litoměřice, King Václav IV decreed that only god-parents and a maximum of four of the closest friends could be invited to baptisms and offered drinks. The drinking was limited to three hours (1397).

29/07

Deceased in Mexico City - the Spanish film director Louis Bunuel who in his memoirs expressed his relationship to bars: “I spent delightful times in bars. To me a bar is a place of meditation and contemplation, without which life would be inconceivable… During the sacred aperitif hour, when I find myself alone in a small room where I have my bottles lined up, I like to think of the bars I used to be fond of.” (1983)

31/07

The American magazine Wine Spectator brought a picture of Patrick McGovern of University of Pennsylvania, holding between his thumb and index finger the remnants of wine, which was at least 7000 years old (1996).