Great wine is made all around the world, from the far west in California to the great down under, and beyond. Growers and winemakers around the world produce wines that reflect each particular region’s specialties, oddities and cultures.

In many societies and cultures, it was believed that a surefire way to bring misfortune into your life was to deliberately harm a cat. An old sailors’ tale cautions against throwing the ship’s cat overboard–the superstition said that this would practically guarantee stormy seas, rough wind, and possibly even a sinking, or at the very least, drownings. Of course, keeping cats on board had a practical purpose, as well–it kept the rat population down to a manageable level.

In some mountain communities, it is believed that if a farmer killed a cat, his cattle or livestock would sicken and die. In other areas, there’s a legend that cat-killing will bring about weak or dying crops.

In ancient Egypt, cats were regarded as sacred because of their association with the goddesses Bast and Sekhmet. To kill a cat was grounds for harsh punishment, according to the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, who wrote, "Whoever kills a cat in Egypt is condemned to death, whether he committed this crime deliberately or not. The people gather and kill him.”

There's an old legend that cats will try to "steal a baby's breath," smothering it in its sleep. In fact, in 1791, a jury in Plymouth, England found a cat guilty of homicide in just these circumstances. Some experts believe that this is the result of the cat lying on top of the child after smelling milk on its breath. In a slightly similar folktale, there's an Icelandic cat called the Jólakötturinn who eats lazy children around the Yuletide season.

In both France and Wales, there’s a legend that if a girl steps on a cat’s tail, she’ll be unlucky in love. If she’s engaged, it will get called off, and if she’s seeking a husband, she won’t find him for at least a year following her cat-tail-stepping transgression.