title: "Central Park" content: examples of idyllic, naturalistic landscapes. The most influential innovations in the Central Park design were the "separate circulation" systems for pedestrians, horseback riders, and pleasure vehicles. The "crosstown" commercial traffic was entirely concealed in sunken roadways (today called "transverses"), screened with densely planted shrub belts so as to maintain a rustic ambiance. In 1850, the land was occupied by free blacks and Irish immigrants who had purchased land, where they raised livestock, built churches and cemeteries, and had lived as a community for close to 50 years. Before the construction of the park could start, the area had to be


title: "Central Park" content: cleared of its inhabitants. Rossi states that part of the impetus to schemes such as Central Park and others was to remove what they incorrectly deemed as shanty towns and their denizens. However, most lived in small villages, such as Harsenville, the Piggery District, or Seneca Village; or in the school and convent at Mount St. Vincent's Academy. Approximately 1,600 residents were evicted under the rule of eminent domain during 1857. Seneca Village and parts of the other communities were razed to make room for the park. In addition, when the commission finally submitted its report for public examination on


title: "Central Park" content: October 4, 1855, taxpayers learned that they would be paying $5 million just for the park land, more than three times what they had been told the completed park as a whole would cost. At the same time, the offsetting revenue from property taxes of adjacent land came to $1.7 million, or one-third of the purchase price, and was considerably less than earlier estimates. During the park's construction, Olmsted battled with the park commissioners, many of them also politicians. In 1860, he was forced out for the first of many times as Central Park's superintendent, and Andrew Haswell Green, the


title: "Central Park" content: former president of New York City's Board of Education took over as the commission's chairman. Despite his having relatively little experience, Green managed to accelerate the construction. Green also finalized the negotiations to purchase an additional at the north end of the park, between 106th and 110th Streets, which would be used as the "rugged" part of the park, its swampy northeast corner dredged, and reconstructed as the Harlem Meer. Between 1860 and 1873, most of the major hurdles to construction were overcome, and the park was substantially completed. Construction combined the modern with the ageless: up-to-date steam-powered equipment and


title: "Central Park" content: custom-designed wheeled tree-moving machines augmented massive numbers of unskilled laborers wielding shovels. The work was extensively documented with technical drawings and photographs. During this period, more than of topsoil had been transported from New Jersey, because the original soil was neither fertile nor sufficiently substantial to sustain the various trees, shrubs, and plants called for by the Greensward Plan. When the park was officially completed in 1873, more than 10 million cartloads of material had been transported out of the park, including soil and rocks, and more than four million trees, shrubs, and plants representing approximately 1,500 species were transplanted


title: "Central Park" content: to the park. More gunpowder was used to clear the area than was used at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. A proposal to have ornate, European-style entrances to the park was opposed by Olmsted and Vaux, who intended for the park's unadorned entrances to signal "that all were welcome, regardless of rank or wealth." The park's commissioners assigned a name to each of the original 18 gates in 1862. The names were chosen to represent the broad diversity of New York City's trades; for example, "Mariner's Gate" for the entrance at 85th Street and Central Park


title: "Central Park" content: West. The majority of entrances did not receive an inscription, however, until a park restoration effort in 1999. Sheep grazed on the Sheep Meadow from the 1860s until 1934, when they were moved to Prospect Park in Brooklyn and soon thereafter moved to a farm near Otisville, New York, in the Catskill Mountains. It was feared they would be used for food by impoverished Depression-era New Yorkers. Following completion, the park quickly slipped into decline. One of the main reasons for this was the lack of interest from the Tammany Hall political machine, which was the largest political force in


title: "Central Park" content: New York at the time. Around the turn of the 20th century, the park faced several new challenges. Cars were becoming commonplace, bringing with them their burden of pollution, and people's attitudes were beginning to change. No longer were parks to be used only for walks and picnics in an idyllic environment but also for sports and similar recreation. Following the dissolution of the Central Park Commission in 1870 and Andrew Green's departure from the project, and Vaux's death in 1895, the maintenance effort gradually declined. All of this changed in 1934, when Republican Fiorello La Guardia was elected mayor


title: "Central Park" content: of New York City and unified the five park-related departments then in existence. Robert Moses was given the task of cleaning up the park. Moses, about to become one of the most powerful men in New York City, took over what was essentially a relic, a leftover from a bygone era. According to historian Robert Caro: In a single year, Moses managed to clean up Central Park and other parks in New York City. Lawns and flowers were replanted, dead trees and bushes were replaced, walls were sandblasted, and bridges were repaired. Another dramatic change was Moses's removal of the


title: "Central Park" content: "Hoover valley" shantytown, whose site was transformed into the Great Lawn. Major redesigning and construction also was carried out: for instance, the Croton Lower Reservoir was filled in so the Great Lawn could be created. The Greensward Plans purpose of creating an idyllic landscape was combined with Moses' vision of a park to be used for recreational purposes: 19 playgrounds, 12 ball fields, and handball courts were constructed. Moses managed to secure funds from the New Deal program, as well as donations from the public. He also created the 67th Street Transverse, widened West Drive, and evicted the sheep from


title: "Central Park" content: Sheep Meadow. The 1960s marked the beginning of an "Events Era" in Central Park that reflected the widespread cultural and political trends of the period. The Public Theater's annual Shakespeare in the Park festival was settled in the Delacorte Theater in 1961, and summer performances were instituted on the Sheep Meadow, and then on the Great Lawn by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera. During the late 1960s, the park became the venue for rallies and cultural events such as the "Love-ins" and "Be-Ins" of the period. In 1966, Mayor John Lindsay, an avid cyclist, initiated a


title: "Central Park" content: weekend ban on automobiles in Central Park for the enjoyment of cyclists and public alike – a policy that continues. Increasingly through the 1970s, the park became a venue for events of unprecedented scale, including rallies, demonstrations, festivals, and concerts. Despite the increasing numbers of visitors to the park, Robert Moses' departure in 1960 marked the beginning of a 20-year period of decline in its management. The city was experiencing economic and social changes, with some residents leaving the city and moving to the suburbs in the wake of increased crime. The Parks Department, suffering from budget cuts, responded by


title: "Central Park" content: opening the park to any and all activities that would bring people into it, without adequate oversight and maintenance follow-up. Some of these events nevertheless became milestones in the social history of the park and in the cultural history of the city. By the mid-1970s, however, managerial neglect was taking a toll on the park's condition. "Years of poor management and inadequate maintenance had turned a masterpiece of landscape architecture into a virtual dustbowl by day and a danger zone by night", in the opinion of Douglas Blonsky, a president of the Central Park Conservancy. Vandalism, territorial use (e.g. a


title: "Central Park" content: pick-up game of softball or association football, which commandeered open space and excluded others), and illicit activities were taking place in the park. Several volunteer citizen groups emerged, intent upon reclaiming the park by fundraising and organizing volunteer initiatives. One of these groups, the Central Park Community Fund, commissioned a study of the park's management. The study's conclusion was bi-linear; it called for establishment of a single position within the New York City Parks Department, responsible for overseeing both the planning and management of Central Park, as well as a board of guardians to provide citizen oversight. In 1979, Parks


title: "Central Park" content: Commissioner Gordon Davis established the Office of Central Park Administrator, appointing to the position the executive director of another citizen organization, the Central Park Task Force. The Central Park Conservancy was founded the following year, to support the office and initiatives of the administrator and to provide consistent leadership through a self-perpetuating, citizen-based board that also would include as ex-officio trustees, the Parks Commissioner, the Central Park Administrator, and mayoral appointees. Under the leadership of the Central Park Conservancy, the park's reclamation began with modest but highly significant first steps, addressing needs that could not be met within the existing


title: "Central Park" content: structure and resources of the parks department. Interns were hired and a small restoration staff to reconstruct and repair unique rustic features, undertaking horticultural projects, and removing graffiti under the broken windows theory. The state of the park has improved since the 1970s, according to Conservancy president Douglas Blonsky: By 1980, the Conservancy was also engaged in design efforts and long-term restoration planning, using both its own staff and external consultants. It provided the impetus and leadership for several early restoration projects funded by the city, preparing a comprehensive plan for rebuilding the park. The restoration was accompanied by a


title: "Central Park" content: crucial restructuring of management, whereby the park was subdivided into zones, to each of which a supervisor was designated, responsible for maintaining restored areas. That year, the Dairy (which was originally designed as a refreshment stand and rest spot) was transformed into the park's first visitor's center, with the Conservancy using it to revitalize public interest in the park through exhibits, music series, and children's programs. The first landscape to be restored was the Sheep Meadow, primarily with funds provided by New York State. During the next few years, Bethesda Terrace and Fountain, Belvedere Castle, and the East Green were


title: "Central Park" content: restored. Bethesda Fountain, which had been dry for decades, was restored in 1980–81 and the Terrace was restored a year later, its stonework disassembled, cleaned, deteriorated surfaces removed, restored, patched, and reset. Resodding, and fifty new trees, 3,500 shrubs and 3,000 ground cover plants specified by Philip Winslow followed in 1986, most of which, having matured into dense blocks, were removed in 2008, to make way for plants native to the United States. Around the same time, the Belvedere Castle, which had been closed for many years, was renovated and reopened on May 1, 1983, as the Henry Luce Nature


title: "Central Park" content: Observatory. By 1982, the Chess & Checkers House and Frisbee Hill had been restored; thousands of shrubs and flowers asserted the park as a horticultural showpiece. To tend to those plants, more than 1,900 volunteers contributed more than 4,000 hours of work in the park. On completion of the planning stage in 1985, the conservancy launched its first capital campaign, assuming increasing responsibility for funding the park's restoration, and full responsibility for designing, bidding, and supervising all capital projects in the park. The Conservancy launched its first fundraising campaign in 1986, mapping out a 15-year restoration plan that sought to


title: "Central Park" content: remain true to the original design. Over the next several years, "Campaign for the Central Park Conservancy" restored landmarks in the southern part of the park – Grand Army Plaza, Shakespeare Garden, and Cedar Hill. By 1988, Conservancy volunteers logged more than 13,000 hours in the park, with the organization's volunteer program winning a citation for excellence from the White House. In the early 1990s, the Conservancy announced a $50 million capital campaign to focus on improvements to the northern end of the park. Efforts culminated in the restoration of the Mall and Concert Ground, Harlem Meer, and the Ravine


title: "Central Park" content: in the North Woods. The Conservancy's work on the Meer and the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center was subsequently honored with three awards: the 1994 New York City Landmarks Preservation Award, the American Society of Landscape Architects' Design Merit Award and the Victorian Society's Citation of Merit. In 1996, the Conservancy embarked on its most ambitious landscape restoration: the overhaul of the including and surrounding the Great Lawn and Turtle Pond (formerly the Great Lawn and the Belvedere Lake). The project was the centerpiece of the Conservancy's three-year "Wonder of New York Campaign", which raised $71.5 million and also helped


title: "Central Park" content: restore southern and westside landscapes, as well as the North Meadow. The Great Lawn project was completed in 1997, featuring new amenities to encourage passive and active recreation as well as nature appreciation. Citywide budget cuts in the early 1990s, however, resulted in attrition of the park's routine maintenance staff, and the conservancy began hiring staff to replace these workers. Management of the restored landscapes by the conservancy's "zone gardeners" proved so successful that core maintenance and operations staff were reorganized in 1996. The zone-based system of management was implemented throughout the park, which was divided into 49 zones. Zone


title: "Central Park" content: gardeners supervise volunteers assigned to them; these volunteers commit to a consistent work schedule and are supported by specialized crews in areas of maintenance requiring specific expertise or equipment, or more effectively conducted on a park-wide basis. In 2007, there were 3,000 volunteers compared to just under 250 paid workers in the park. Renovations continued through the early 2000s. In 2000 the Conservatory Water opened after a six-month restoration effort, with a $4 million project beginning on the 59th Street Pond, one of the park's most visible and heavily used landscapes. A new Reservoir fence was installed in 2003 under


title: "Central Park" content: a $2 million capital project that replaced the old chain-link fence with a replica of the 8,000-foot long steel and cast-iron one that had enclosed the Reservoir in 1926. The new fence, along with removal of invasive trees and shrubs, restored the panoramic views of the park and Manhattan skyline. Another ambitious restoration effort began in 2004, when Conservancy staff and contractors worked together to refurbish the 15,876 Minton tiles that hang on the ceiling of the Bethesda Arcade. Originally designed by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould, the ceiling of the Arcade is lined by 15,876 elaborately patterned encaustic


title: "Central Park" content: tiles. Made by Minton and Company, a leading 19th-century ceramic manufacturer in England, the ceiling tiles are divided into 49 panels, each containing 324 tiles. Salt and water infiltration from the roadway above had badly damaged the tiles, leaving their backing plates so corroded they had to be removed in the 1980s. The tiles sat in storage for more than 20 years until the Conservancy received a generous private donation for their restoration. The Conservancy embarked on a $7 million restoration effort to return the Minton tiles to their original luster in 2004. A team of seven conservation technicians cleaned


title: "Central Park" content: and repaired more than 14,000 original tiles by hand. Only three panels of replica tiles were needed to replace those that had been damaged beyond repair. For those recreations, the Conservancy decided to commission Maw and Company, Minton's successor in Stoke-on-Trent, England. The completed Bethesda Terrace Arcade was unveiled to much fanfare in March 2007. In 2006, the Conservancy completed a nine-month renovation of the Mall in a project that returned the landscape to its original character and ensured the protection of its great American Elms. The Lake was the last of Central Park's bodies of water to be renovated


title: "Central Park" content: by the Central Park Conservancy, in a project to enhance both its ecological and scenic aspects. In the summer of 2007, the first phase of a restoration of the Lake and its shoreline plantings commenced, with replanting using native shrubs and understory trees around the northern end of the Lake, from Bank Rock Bay – a narrow cove in the northwest corner that had become a silted-up algae-covered stand of aggressively invasive "Phragmites" reeds – to Bow Bridge, which received replicas of its four original Italianate cast-iron vases, overspilling with annuals. In the earliest stages, invasive non-native plants like Japanese


title: "Central Park" content: knotweed were eradicated, the slopes were regraded with added humus and protected with landscaping burlap to stabilize the slopes while root systems became established and leaf litter developed. During the same time, Bank Rock Bridge, also called Cabinet Bridge, across the mouth of the cove was recreated in carved oak with cast-iron panels and pine decking, its original materials, following Vaux's original design of 1859–60. The cascade, where the Gill empties into the lake, was reconstructed to approximate its dramatic original form, inspired by paintings of Asher B. Durand. Sections of the Lake were dredged of accumulated silt – topsoil


title: "Central Park" content: that had washed off the surrounding slopes – and the island formerly in the lake, which gradually eroded below water level, was reconstructed in the summer of 2007 with rugged boulders along its shoreline, graded wetland areas, and submerged planting shelves for water-loving native plants, like Pickerel weed. Oak Bridge, the major entrance to the Ramble from the Upper West Side, spans Bank Rock Bay in the Lake's northwest corner; the long-lost picturesque feature was recreated in 2009 based on Calvert Vaux's original drawings. The bridge, built in 1860 of white oak with decorative openwork panels of cast iron, has


title: "Central Park" content: been recreated in steel clad in ornamental cast iron facings, with wooden deck and railings. Restoration of further sections of the Lake's shoreline landscapes was undertaken, and the first renovated sections were opened to visitors in April 2008. On October 23, 2012, hedge fund manager John A. Paulson announced a $100 million gift to the Central Park Conservancy, the largest ever monetary donation to New York City's park system. Since the 1960s, there has been a grassroots campaign to restore the park's loop drives to their original car-free state. Over the years, the number of car-free hours increased, though a


title: "Central Park" content: full closure was resisted by the New York City Department of Transportation. Legislation was proposed in October 2014 to conduct a study to make the park car-free in summer 2015. In 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the permanent closure of West and East Drives north of 72nd Street to vehicular traffic as it was proven that closing the roads did not adversely impact traffic. Subsequently, in June 2018, the remaining drives south of 72nd Street were closed to vehicular traffic. Visitor attractions include: A total of 29 sculptures by sculptors such as Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Emma Stebbins, and John Quincy


title: "Central Park" content: Adams Ward have been erected over the years, most donated by individuals or organizations. Much of the first statuary placed was of authors and poets, in an area now known as Literary Walk. Some of the sculptures are: Geographic features include: There are four different types of bedrock in Manhattan. In Central Park, Manhattan schist and Hartland schist, which are both metamorphosed sedimentary rock, are exposed in various outcroppings. The other two types, Fordham gneiss (an older deeper layer) and Inwood marble (metamorphosed limestone which overlays the gneiss), do not surface in the park. Fordham gneiss, which consists of metamorphosed


title: "Central Park" content: igneous rocks, was formed a billion years ago, during the Grenville orogeny that occurred during the creation of an ancient super-continent. It is the oldest rock in the Canadian Shield, the most ancient part of the North American tectonic plate. Manhattan schist and Hartland schist were formed in the Iapetus Ocean during the Taconic orogeny in the Paleozoic era, about 450 million years ago. During this period the tectonic plates began to move toward each other, which resulted in the creation of the supercontinent Pangaea. Cameron's Line is a fault zone that traverses Central Park on an east-west axis. Various


title: "Central Park" content: glaciers have covered the area of Central Park in the past, with the most recent being the Wisconsin glacier which receded about 12,000 years ago. Evidence of past glaciers are visible throughout the park in the form of "glacial erratics" (large boulders dropped by the receding glacier) and north-south glacial striations visible on stone outcroppings. One such outcrop is Rat Rock at , named after the rats that used to swarm there at night but also known as 'Umpire Rock'. Located near the southwest corner of the park, the outcrop is roughly circular, about wide and tall with different east,


title: "Central Park" content: west, and north faces. Boulderers usually congregate there, as many as fifty per day, with some being regulars, and others being tourists; the quality of the stone is poor, and the climbs present so little challenge that it has been called "one of America's most pathetic boulders". The park police formerly ticketed climbers who climbed more than a few feet up the rock, but the City Climbers Club approached the park authorities and, by working to provide safety features such as wood chips around the base, they were able to legalize climbing there. Central Park is home to seven bodies


title: "Central Park" content: of water, all artificial. The largest lake is the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, so named since 1994. It was constructed between 1858 and 1862. Covering an area of between 86th and 96th Streets, the reservoir reaches a depth of more than in places and contains about of water. The Reservoir is best known to New Yorkers for the jogging track around it. The Ramble and Lake south of the Great Lawn covers nearly . Built on a former swamp, it was designed by Olmsted and Vaux to accommodate boats in the summer and ice skaters in winter. The Lake was


title: "Central Park" content: opened to skaters in December 1858, while the rest of the park was still under construction. At the northern end of the park, at 110th Street, the Harlem Meer, named in honor of one of the first communities in the region, covers nearly . Located in a wooded area of oak, cypress, and beech trees, it was built after the completion of the southern portion of the park. Harlem Meer also allows visitors to fish, on a catch and release basis. In the southeast corner is the Pond, with an area of . The Pond is located near one of


title: "Central Park" content: the busiest entrances to Central Park but still provides an atmosphere of calm and solitude. Central Park is home to over 25,000 trees and has a stand of 1,700 American elms, one of the largest remaining stands in the northeastern U.S., protected by their isolation from the Dutch elm disease that devastated the tree throughout its native range. A partial listing of the tree species found in Central Park, both natives and exotics, includes: A wooded section of the park, called the Ramble and Lake, is popular among birders. Many species of woodland birds, especially warblers, may be seen in


title: "Central Park" content: the Ramble in the spring and the fall. Rowboats and kayaks are rented on an hourly basis at the Loeb Boathouse, which also houses a restaurant overlooking the Lake. As early as 1922, model power boating was popular on park waters. The tradition of carriage horses in New York City was revived in 1935. The carriages have appeared in many films, and the first female horse and carriage driver, Maggie Cogan, appeared in a Universal newsreel in 1967. As such, they have become a symbolic institution of the city. After the September 11 attacks, in a much-publicized event, Mayor Rudolph


title: "Central Park" content: Giuliani went to the stables himself to ask the drivers to go back to work to help return a sense of normality. Some activists such as NYCLASS, as well as politicians, have questioned the ethics of this tradition. The history of accidents involving spooked horses has come under scrutiny with recent horse deaths. Protests from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and celebrities including Alec Baldwin, Alecia Beth Moore and Cheryl Hines have raised the issue's profile. Additional media accounts have corroborated some charges, but they have also shown that the standards vary from stable to stable. Both activists


title: "Central Park" content: and horse owners agree that part of the problem is lack of enforcement of the city code. Supporters of the trade say it needs to be reformed, not shut down, and that carriage drivers deserve a raise, which the city has not authorized since 1989. Paris, London, Beijing, and several U.S. cities have banned carriage horses. Replacements for the carriage horses may include electric vintage cars. Pedicabs operate mostly in the southern part of the park, the same part as horse carriages. Such vehicles have more recently offered visitors a more dynamic way in which to view the park; covering


title: "Central Park" content: three to ten times the distance of a typical Central Park horse carriage ride, pedicabs have become very popular with visitors and New Yorkers alike; also, they are being eyed as another replacement for the carriage horses. Park Drive, just over long, is heavily used by runners, joggers, pedestrians, bicyclists, and inline skaters. On most weekends, running races take place in the park, many of which are organized by the New York Road Runners. The New York City Marathon finishes in Central Park outside Tavern on the Green. Many other professional races are run in the park, including the 2008


title: "Central Park" content: USA Men's 8k Championships. Baseball fields are numerous, and there are also courts for volleyball, tennis, croquet and lawn bowling. The park is home to several competitive running clubs, including Central Park Track Club. Central Park has two ice skating rinks, Wollman Rink and Lasker Rink; during summer, the former is the site of Victorian Gardens seasonal amusement park, and the latter converts to an outdoor swimming pool. The park drives are used as the home course for the Century Road Club Association's racing series. The CRCA is a USA Cycling sanctioned amateur cycling club. Central Park's glaciated rock outcroppings


title: "Central Park" content: attract climbers, especially boulderers. The two most renowned spots for boulderers are Rat Rock and Cat Rock; others include Dog Rock, Duck Rock, Rock N' Roll Rock, and Beaver Rock, near the south end of the park. Central Park has twenty-one playgrounds for children located throughout the park; the largest, at , is Heckscher Playground named for August Heckscher. The current Central Park Carousel, installed in 1951, is one of the largest merry-go-rounds in the United States. The fifty-eight hand-carved horses and two chariots were made by Solomon Stein and Harry Goldstein in 1908. The carousel originally was installed in


title: "Central Park" content: Coney Island in Brooklyn. The Central Park Zoo is part of a system of four zoos and one aquarium that is managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society. The zoo is home to an indoor rainforest, a leafcutter ant colony, a chilled penguin house, and a polar bear pool. Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre is located in the Swedish Cottage. The building was originally a model schoolhouse built in Sweden. Made of native pine and cedar, it was disassembled and rebuilt in the U.S. as Sweden's exhibit for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Frederick Law Olmsted moved the cottage to its


title: "Central Park" content: present site in 1877. Central Park is home to two indoor restaurants. The famed New York City restaurant Tavern on the Green is located on the park's grounds at Central Park West and West 67th Street. It was originally the sheepfold that housed the sheep that grazed Sheep Meadow, built to a design by Calvert Vaux in 1870. It became a restaurant as part of a 1934 renovation of the park under Robert Moses. In 1974, Warner LeRoy took over the restaurant's lease and reopened it in 1976 after $10 million in renovations including the addition of a glass-enclosed Crystal


title: "Central Park" content: Room overlooking the restaurant's garden (one of several dining rooms), which doubled the seating capacity to 800. The restaurant closed in 2009 and reopened on April 24, 2014, after a renovation. The Loeb Boathouse restaurant is the other indoor restaurant in Central Park. Located at the Loeb Boathouse on The Lake, it was designed in 1874, destroyed in 1950, and rebuilt in 1954 on the East Side between 74th and 75th Streets. The oldest free classical music concert series in the United States, the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts – founded in 1905 – presents concerts in the park's only neo-classical building,


title: "Central Park" content: the Naumburg Bandshell on the Concert Ground, each summer. The concerts feature promising new talent and promote the professional development of young composers and conductors. Central Park has given birth to other arts groups dedicated to performing in the park, notably Central Park Brass, which performs an annual concert series, and the New York Classical Theatre, which produces an annual series of plays. Each summer, there are several events happening in the park. The Public Theater presents free open-air theatre productions, often starring well-known stage and screen actors. The Delacorte Theater is the summer performing venue of the New York


title: "Central Park" content: Shakespeare Festival, where most, although not all, of the plays presented are by William Shakespeare, and the performances are generally regarded as being of high quality since its founding by Joseph Papp in 1962. The New York Philharmonic gives an open-air concert on the Great Lawn yearly during the summer. City Parks Foundation has offered Central Park Summerstage since 1985, a series of free performances including music, dance, spoken word, and film presentations, often featuring famous performers; the Summerstage facility also has non-free concerts that are branded under different names. Since 1992, local singer-songwriter David Ippolito has performed almost every


title: "Central Park" content: summer weekend to large crowds of passers-by and regulars and has become a New York icon, often simply referred to as "That guitar man from Central Park". From 1967 until 2007, the Metropolitan Opera presented two operas in concert each year. The Fifth Avenue Mile is along the east side of the park between 80th and 60th Streets each September. Many popular one-time concerts have been given in the park including Barbra Streisand, 1967; The Supremes, 1970; Carole King, 1973; Bob Marley and The Wailers, 1975; America, 1979; Elton John, 1980; the Simon and Garfunkel reunion, 1981; Diana Ross, 1983;


title: "Central Park" content: Paul Simon, 1991; Garth Brooks, 1997; Sheryl Crow, 1999; Dave Matthews Band, 2003; Bon Jovi, 2008; and , 2011. Central Park was the location of the largest concert ever on record when country superstar Garth Brooks performed a in August 1997, to which about 980,000 had attended. The New York City Subway's IND Eighth Avenue Line () runs along the western edge of the park, with a transfer station to the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line at Columbus Circle. In addition, the IRT Lenox Avenue Line () has a station at Central Park North. From there the line curves southwest under


title: "Central Park" content: the park, and heads west under 104th Street. The BMT Broadway Line () has a station at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street. Various bus routes pass through Central Park or stop along its boundaries. The M10 bus stops along Central Park West, while the M5 and part of the M7 runs along Central Park South, and the run along Central Park North. The M1, M2, M3, and M4 run southbound along Fifth Avenue with corresponding northbound bus service on Madison Avenue. In addition, the buses use the transverse roads across Central Park. The only serve Columbus Circle on the south


title: "Central Park" content: end of the park, and the run on 57th Street two blocks from the park's south end, but do not actually stop on the boundaries of the park itself. Central Park is surrounded by four roadways: Central Park North, Central Park South, Central Park West, and Fifth Avenue. There are four plazas, one on each corner of the park: Frederick Douglass Circle on the northwest, Duke Ellington Circle on the northeast, Columbus Circle at the southwest, and Grand Army Plaza at the southeast. There are also four transverse roadways: 65th–66th Streets, 79th–81st Streets, 86th Street, and 96th Street. The park


title: "Central Park" content: has three scenic roadways that travel it vertically: West, Center, and East Drives. Since 2018, traffic is banned from all of the vertical drives. is the westernmost of the park's three vertical "drives". The road, which carries southbound bicycle and horse-carriage traffic, is described as "... concealed in sunken roadways and screened with densely planted shrub belts, creating a country-road feel in the center of the city." In the early 20th century, the drive was a popular place for carriage rides. A painting by Gifford Beal shows a picture of West Drive depicted with a horse and buggy. However, the


title: "Central Park" content: drive is also dangerous; in 2014, a stretch of West Drive was considered to be "the most dangerous section of Central Park" for pedestrians, with bicycle crashes along the drive leaving 15 people injured. , the easternmost of the three drives, connects northbound bicycle and carriage traffic from Midtown to the Upper West Side at Lenox Avenue. The street is renowned for its country scenery and free concerts. It generally straddles the east side of the park along Fifth Avenue. The drive passes by the Central Park Zoo around 63rd Street and the Metropolitan Museum of Art around the 80th


title: "Central Park" content: to 84th Street area. The drive is also one of the legs of the New York Marathon. It is known as the "Elite Carriage Parade", because at the time of the park's opening, only 5 percent of the city was able to afford the carriage; of this, Walt Whitman said that the carriage parade was "an impressive, rich, interminable circus on a grand scale, full of action and color." The drives were formerly two-way traffic, but in November 1929, the scenic drives were converted to unidirectional traffic. The improvements were intended to increase pedestrian safety. Prior to the changes, there


title: "Central Park" content: were large numbers of collisions between pedestrians and vehicles. In the first ten months of 1929, eight people were killed and 249 were injured in 338 separate collisions. Further improvements were made in 1932 when forty-two traffic lights were installed along the scenic drives, and the speed limit was lowered to . The signals were coordinated so that drivers could go through all of the green lights if they maintained a steady speed of 25 mph. The drives were experimentally closed to automotive traffic on weekends starting in 1967, for exclusive use by pedestrians and bicyclists. In subsequent years, the


title: "Central Park" content: scenic drives were closed to automotive traffic for most of the day during the summer. By 1979, the drives were only open during rush hours and late evenings during the summer. Legislation was proposed in October 2014 to conduct a study to make the park car-free in summer 2015. In 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the permanent closure of West and East Drives north of 72nd Street to vehicular traffic as it was proven that closing the roads did not adversely impact traffic. After most of the Central Park loop drives were closed to vehicular traffic, the city performed


title: "Central Park" content: a follow-up study. The city found that West Drive, which was used by 1,050 vehicles a day, was open for two hours during the morning rush hour, and that East Drive, which was open for twelve hours a day, was used by 3,400 vehicles per day. Subsequently, all cars were banned from East Drive in January 2018. In April 2018, de Blasio announced that the entirety of all three loop drives would be permanently closed to traffic. The closure was placed into effect in June 2018. Central Park was once a very dangerous place, especially after dark, as measured by


title: "Central Park" content: crime statistics. The park is considerably safer in the 21st century, though during prior periods it was the site of numerous muggings and rapes. Well-publicized incidents of sexual and confiscatory violence, such as the notorious 1989 Central Park jogger case, dissuaded many from visiting one of Manhattan's most scenic areas. Fear was also directed toward the gay community after World War II from a panic of sex crimes. As crime has declined in the park and in the rest of New York City, many of the negative perceptions have begun to wane. Safety measures hold the number of crimes in


title: "Central Park" content: the park to fewer than one hundred per year, down from approximately 1,000 in the early 1980s. On June 11, 2000, following the Puerto Rican Day Parade, gangs of drunken men sexually assaulted women in the park. Several arrests were made shortly after the attacks, but it was not until 2006 that a civil suit against the city for failing to provide police protection was finally settled. Permission to hold issue-centered rallies in Central Park, similar to the be-ins of the 1960s, has been met with increasingly stiff resistance from the city. During some 2004 protests, the organization United for


title: "Central Park" content: Peace and Justice wanted to hold a rally on the Great Lawn during the Republican National Convention. The city denied application for a permit, stating that such a mass gathering would be harmful to the grass and that such damage would make it harder to collect private donations to maintain the park. Courts upheld the refusal. During the 2000s and early 2010s, new towers were constructed along the southern end of Central Park. According to a Municipal Art Society report, such buildings cast shadows over the southern end of the park. There has been some controversy over this. Central Park


title: Mycenae content: evidence of a powerful Pelopid named Atreus of those times. During LHIIIA:2, Ahhiya, now known as "Ahhiyawa", extended its influence over Miletus, settling on the coast of Anatolia, and competed with the Hittites for influence and control in western Anatolia. For instance, Uhha-Ziti's Arzawa and through him Manapa-Tarhunta's Seha River Land. While establishing the credibility of the Mycenaean Greeks as a historical power, these documents create as many problems as they solve. Similarly, a Hittite king wrote the so-called Tawagalawa Letter to the Great King of Ahhiyawa, concerning the depredations of the Luwiyan adventurer Piyama-Radu. Neither of the names of


title: "Pizza Hut" content: Kansas. Six months later they opened a second outlet and within a year they had six Pizza Hut restaurants. The brothers began franchising in 1959. The iconic Pizza Hut building style was designed in 1963. PepsiCo acquired Pizza Hut in November 1977. Before closing in 2015, the oldest continuously operating Pizza Hut was in Manhattan, Kansas, in a shopping and tavern district known as Aggieville near Kansas State University. The first Pizza Hut restaurant east of the Mississippi River opened in Athens, Ohio, in 1966 by Lawrence Berberick and Gary Meyers. Pizza Hut's international presence includes Canada and Mexico in


title: Chardonnay content: Chardonnay Chardonnay () is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand. For new and developing wine regions, growing Chardonnay is seen as a "rite of passage" and an easy entry into the international wine market. The Chardonnay grape itself is neutral, with many of the flavors commonly associated with the wine being derived from such influences as "terroir" and oak. It is vinified in many different styles, from the lean, crisply mineral


title: Chardonnay content: wines of Chablis, France, to New World wines with oak and tropical fruit flavors. In cool climates (such as Chablis and the Carneros AVA of California), Chardonnay wine tends to be medium to light body with noticeable acidity and flavors of green plum, apple, and pear. In warmer locations (such as the Adelaide Hills and Mornington Peninsula in Australia and Gisborne and Marlborough region of New Zealand), the flavors become more citrus, peach, and melon, while in very warm locations (such as the Central Coast AVA of California), more fig and tropical fruit notes such as banana and mango come


title: Chardonnay content: out. Wines that have gone through malolactic fermentation tend to have softer acidity and fruit flavors with buttery mouthfeel and hazelnut notes. Chardonnay is an important component of many sparkling wines around the world, including Champagne and Franciacorta in Italy. Chardonnay's popularity peaked in the late 1980s, then gave way to a backlash among those wine connoisseurs who saw the grape as a leading negative component of the globalization of wine. Nonetheless, it is one of the most widely planted grape varieties, with worldwide, second only to Airén among white wine grapes and fifth among all wine grapes. For much


title: Chardonnay content: of its history, a connection was assumed between Chardonnay and Pinot noir or Pinot blanc. In addition to being found in the same region of France for centuries, ampelographers noted that the leaves of each plant have near-identical shape and structure. Pierre Galet disagreed with this assessment, believing that Chardonnay was not related to any other major grape variety. Viticulturalists Maynard Amerine and Harold Olmo proposed a descendency from a wild "Vitis vinifera" vine that was a step removed from white Muscat. Chardonnay's true origins were further obscured by vineyard owners in Lebanon and Syria, who claimed that the grape's


title: Chardonnay content: ancestry could be traced to the Middle East, from where it was introduced to Europe by returning Crusaders, though little external evidence supports that theory. Another theory stated that it originated from an ancient indigenous vine found in Cyprus. Modern DNA fingerprinting research at University of California, Davis, now suggests that Chardonnay is the result of a cross between the Pinot noir and Gouais blanc (Heunisch) grape varieties. The Romans are thought to have brought Gouais blanc from Croatia, and it was widely cultivated by peasants in eastern France. The Pinot of the French aristocracy grew in close proximity to


title: Chardonnay content: the Gouais blanc, giving both grapes ample opportunity to interbreed. Since the two parents were genetically distant, many of the crosses showed hybrid vigour and were selected for further propagation. These "successful" crosses included Chardonnay and siblings such as Aligoté, Aubin vert, Auxerrois, Bachet noir, Beaunoir, Franc Noir de la-Haute-Saône, Gamay Blanc Gloriod, Gamay noir, Melon, Knipperlé, Peurion, Roublot, Sacy, and Dameron. As of 2006, 34 clonal varieties of Chardonnay could be found in vineyards throughout France, most of which were developed at the University of Burgundy in Dijon. The so-called "Dijon clones" are bred for their adaptive attributes, with


title: Chardonnay content: vineyard owners planting the clonal variety best suited to their "terroir" and which will produce the characteristics that they are seeking in the wine. Examples include the lower-yielding clones 'Dijon-76', '95' and '96' that produce more flavor-concentrated clusters. 'Dijon-77' and '809' produce more aromatic wines with a "grapey" perfume, while 'Dijon-75', '78', '121', '124', '125' and '277' are more vigorous and higher-yielding clones. New World varieties include the 'Mendoza' clone, which produced some of the early California Chardonnays. The 'Mendoza' clone is prone to develop "millerandage", also known as "hens and chicks", where the berries develop unevenly. In places such


title: Chardonnay content: as Oregon, the use of newer Dijon clones has had some success in those regions of the Willamette Valley with climates similar to that of Burgundy. Chardonnay has served as parent to several French-American hybrid grapes, as well as crossings with other "V. vinifera" varieties. Examples include the hybrid Chardonel, which was a Chardonnay and Seyval blanc cross produced in 1953 at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. Mutations of the Chardonnay grape include the rare pink-berried 'Chardonnay Rose'; also 'Chardonnay Blanc Musqué', which produces an intensely aromatic wine. Chardonnay Blanc Musqué is mostly found around the Mâconnais village


title: Chardonnay content: of Clessé and sometimes confused with the 'Dijon-166' clone planted in South Africa, which yields Muscat-like aromas. In the 1930s, Chardonnay was crossed with a Seibel grape to create the hybrid grape Ravat blanc. Chardonnay has a wide-ranging reputation for relative ease of cultivation and ability to adapt to different conditions. The grape is very "malleable", in that it reflects and takes on the impression of its "terroir" and winemaker. It is a highly vigorous vine, with extensive leaf cover which can inhibit the energy and nutrient uptake of its grape clusters. Vineyard managers counteract this with aggressive pruning and


title: Chardonnay content: canopy management. When Chardonnay vines are planted densely, they are forced to compete for resources and funnel energy into their grape clusters. In certain conditions, the vines can be very high-yielding, but the wine produced from such vines suffers a drop in quality if yields go much beyond 80 hl/ha (4.5 tons per acre). Producers of premium Chardonnay limit yields to less than half this amount. Sparkling wine producers tend not to focus as much on limiting yields, since concentrated flavors are not as important as the wine's finesse. Harvesting time is crucial to winemaking, with the grape rapidly losing


title: Chardonnay content: acidity as soon as it ripens. Some viticultural hazards include the risk of damage from springtime frost, as Chardonnay is an early-budding vine – usually a week after Pinot noir. To combat the threat of frost, a method developed in Burgundy involves aggressive pruning just prior to budburst. This "shocks" the vine and delays budburst up to two weeks, which is often long enough for warmer weather to arrive. "Millerandage" and "coulure" can also pose problems, along with powdery mildew attacking the thin skin of the grapes. Because of Chardonnay's early ripening, it can thrive in wine regions with short


title: Chardonnay content: growing seasons, and in regions such as Burgundy, can be harvested before autumn rain sets in and brings the threat of rot. While Chardonnay can adapt to almost all vineyard soils, the three it seems to like most are chalk, clay, and limestone, all very prevalent throughout Chardonnay's traditional "homeland". The Grand crus of Chablis are planted on hillsides composed of Kimmeridgian marl, limestone, and chalk. The outlying regions, falling under the more basic "Petit Chablis" appellation, are planted on portlandian limestone which produces wines with less finesse. Chalk beds are found throughout the Champagne region, and the Côte-d'Or has


title: Chardonnay content: many areas composed of limestone and clay. In Burgundy, the amount of limestone to which the Chardonnay vines are exposed also seems to have some effect on the resulting wine. In the Meursault region, the "premier cru" vineyards planted at Meursault-Charmes have topsoil almost above limestone and the resulting wines are very rich and rounded. In the nearby Les Perrieres vineyard, the topsoil is only around above the limestone and the wine from that region is much more powerful, minerally, and tight, needing longer in the bottle to develop fully. In other areas, soil type can compensate for lack of


title: Chardonnay content: ideal climate conditions. In South Africa, for example, regions with stonier, shaley soils and high clay levels tend to produce lower-yielding and more Burgundian-style wine, despite having a discernibly warmer climate than France. In contrast, South African Chardonnay produced from more sandstone-based vineyards tend to be richer and more weighty. Due to some ampelographical similarities, Pinot blanc and Chardonnay were often mistaken for each other and even today share many of the same synonyms. The grape vines, leaves, and clusters look identical at first glance, but some subtle differences are seen. The most visible of these can be observed as


title: Chardonnay content: the grapes are ripening, with Chardonnay grapes taking on a more golden-green color than Pinot blanc grapes. On closer inspection, the grapevine shows slight differences in the texture and length of the hairs on the vine's shoot, and the veins of a Chardonnay leaf are "naked" near the petiolar sinus – the open area where the leaf connects to the stem is delineated by veins at the edge. Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the few other "Vitis vinifera" grape vines to share this characteristic. This confusion between Pinot blanc and Chardonnay was very pervasive throughout northern Italy, where the two


title: Chardonnay content: vines grew interspersed in the vineyard and were blended in winemaking. The Italian government did not dispatch researchers to try to distinguish the two vines until 1978. A similar situation occurred in France, with the two vines being commonly confused until the mid-19th century, when ampelographers began combing through the vineyards of Chablis and Burgundy, identifying the true Chardonnay and weeding out the Pinot blanc. In France, Chardonnay is the second-most widely planted white grape variety just behind Ugni blanc and ahead of Sémillon and Sauvignon blanc. The grape first rose to prominence in the Chablis and Burgundy regions. In


title: Chardonnay content: Champagne, it is most often blended with Pinot noir and Pinot Meunier, but is also used to produce single varietal "blanc de blancs" styles of sparkling wine. Chardonnay can be found in "Appellation d'origine contrôlée" (AOC) wines of the Loire Valley and Jura wine region, as well as the "vin de pays" wines of the Languedoc. Chardonnay is one of the dominant grapes in Burgundy, though Pinot noir vines outnumber it by nearly a three-to-one ratio. In addition to Chablis, Chardonnay is found in the Côte d'Or (largely in the Côte de Beaune), as well as the Côte Chalonnaise and


title: Chardonnay content: Mâconnais. It is grown in eight "grand cru" vineyards; The "Montrachets"-Montrachet, Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet, Bâtard-Montrachet, Chevalier-Montrachet, and Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet, as well as Charlemagne, Corton-Charlemagne, and Le Musigny. In addition to being the most expensive, the Burgundy examples of Chardonnay were long considered the benchmark standard of expressing "terroir" through Chardonnay. The Montrachets are noted for their high alcohol levels, often above 13%, as well as deep concentration of flavors. The vineyards around Chassagne-Montrachet tend to have a characteristic hazelnut aroma to them, while those of Puligny-Montrachet have more steely flavors. Both "grand cru" and "premier cru" examples from Corton-Charlemagne have been known to


title: Chardonnay content: demonstrate marzipan, while Meursault wines tend to be the most round and buttery examples. South of the Côte d'Or are the Côte Chalonnaise and Mâconnais wine regions. The villages of Mercurey, Montagny-lès-Buxy, and Rully are the largest producers of Chardonnay in the Côte Chalonnaise, with the best-made examples rivaling those of the Côte de Beaune. In the Mâconnais, white wine production is centered on the town of Mâcon and the Pouilly-Fuissé region. The full-bodied wines of the Pouilly-Fuissé have long held cult wine status with prices that can rival the "grand cru" white burgundies. Further south, in the region of


title: Chardonnay content: Beaujolais, Chardonnay has started to replace Aligoté as the main white wine grape and is even replacing Gamay in some areas around Saint-Véran. With the exception of Pouilly-Fuissé, the wines of the Mâconnais are the closest Burgundy example to "New World" Chardonnay, though it is not identical. Typically, Mâcon blanc, basic Bourgogne, Beaujolais blanc, and Saint-Véran are meant to be consumed within two to three years of release. However, many of the well-made examples of white Burgundy from the Côte d'Or need at least three years in the bottle to develop enough to express the aromas and character of the


title: Chardonnay content: wine. Hazelnut, licorice, and spice are some of the flavors that can develop as these wines age. Chardonnay is the only permitted AOC grape variety in the Chablis region, with the wines there developing such worldwide recognition that the name "Chablis" has taken on somewhat generic connotations to mean any dry white wine, even those not made from Chardonnay. The name is protected in the European Union and for wine sold in the EU, "Chablis" refers only to the Chardonnay wine produced in this region of the Yonne "". The region sits on the outer edges of the Paris Basin.


title: Chardonnay content: On the other side of the basin is the village of Kimmeridge in England, which gives its name to the Kimmeridgean soil that is located throughout Chablis. The French describe this soil as "argilo-calcaire" and is a composition of clay, limestone, and fossilized oyster shells. The most expensive examples of Chardonnay from Chablis come from the seven Grand Cru vineyards that account for around on the southwest side of one slope along the Serein River near the towns of Chablis—Blanchots, Bougros, Les Clos, Grenouilles, Preuses, Valmur, and Vaudésir. The wines from these crus most often capture the "goût de pierre


title: Chardonnay content: à fusil" or "gunflint" quality that is characteristic of Chablis wine. Chardonnay was believed to be first planted in Chablis by the Cistercians at Pontigny Abbey in the 12th century. Today, the Chardonnay made in the Chablis region is one of the "purest" expression of the varietal character of the grape due to the simplistic style of winemaking favored in this region. Chablis winemakers want to emphasise the "terroir" of the calcareous soil and cooler climate that help maintain high acidity. The wines rarely go through malolactic fermentation or are exposed to oak (though its use is increasing). The biting,


title: Chardonnay content: green apple-like acidity is a trademark of Chablis and can be noticeable in the bouquet. The acidity can mellow with age and Chablis are some of the longest-living examples of Chardonnay. Some examples of Chablis can have an earthy "wet stone" flavor that can get mustier as it ages before mellowing into delicate honeyed notes. The use of oak is controversial in the Chablis community, with some winemakers dismissing it as counter to the "Chablis style" or "terroir", while others embrace its use, though not to the length that would characterise a "New World" Chardonnay. The winemakers who use oak


title: Chardonnay content: tend to favor more neutral oak that does not impart the vanilla characteristic associated with American oak. The amount of "char" in the barrel is often very light, which limits the amount of "toastiness" perceived in the wine. The advocates of oak in Chablis point to the positive benefits of allowing limited oxygenation with the wine through the permeable oak barrels. This can have the effect of softening the wine and making the generally austere and acidic Chablis more approachable at a younger age. In the Champagne, Chardonnay is one of three major grape varieties planted in the region. It


title: Chardonnay content: is most commonly found in the Aube and Marne "départments" which, combined with Chablis, accounted for more than half of all plantings of Chardonnay in France during the 20th century. In the Côte des Blancs (white slope) district of the Marne, Chardonnay thrives on the chalk soil. The three main villages around the Côte grow Chardonnay that emphasizes certain characteristics that the Champagne producers seek depending on their house style. The village of Avize grows grapes that produce the lightest wines, Cramant makes the most aromatic, and Mesnil produces wines with the most acidity. The Côte des Blancs is the


title: Chardonnay content: only district in the Champagne region predominately planted with Chardonnay. In the four other main districts-Aube, Côte de Sézanne, Montagne de Reims, and Vallée de la Marne-Chardonnay lags behind Pinot noir in planting. In the outlying region of Aisne, only Pinot Meunier has a significant presence. Despite being less planted, the "Blanc de Blancs" style of Champagne (made from only Chardonnay grapes) is far more commonly produced than "Blanc de Noirs". This is partly because Pinot noir and Pinot Meunier produce very coarse and heavy wines that lack the finesse and balance that Chardonnay brings to the mix. Nonsparkling still


title: Chardonnay content: wine Chardonnay is produced under the Coteaux Champenois AOC. The wine is much more acidic than that of Chablis and is normally made bone-dry. Despite receiving the same amount of sunshine as the Chablis region, Chardonnay grapes in Champagne rarely attain full ripeness due to the mean temperature of the region being around , barely above the minimum average temperature needed to ripen grapes. Therefore, the Chardonnay grapes do not fully develop their fruit flavors and the still version of Champagne can taste very "un-Chardonnay"-like because of this. However, it does lessen the premium on needing to keep yields low


title: Chardonnay content: that other wine regions battle, since not much flavor is going to develop in the grapes, anyway. Rather, the element in Chardonnay that Champagne wine-makers look for is the finesse and balance of acidity that it brings to the blend. Some flavors that can emerge from, particularly with extended time on its lees, include creamy and nuttiness with some floral notes. Champagne, Chablis, and Burgundy account for more than three-fifths of all Chardonnay plantings in France. The next-largest concentration is found in the Languedoc, where it was first planted around the town of Limoux and up to 30% can be


title: Chardonnay content: blended with Mauzac in the sparkling "Blanquette de Limoux". Every year since 1991, Chardonnay production is celebrated in Limoux during the Toques et Clochers festival. By 2000, more than were planted, with many being used for wines under the "Vin de Pays d'Oc". These wines were unique in that they were some of the first examples of Chardonnay to be varietally labeled as "Chardonnay". Other French wine regions with Chardonnay plantings include Alsace, Ardèche, Jura, Savoie, and the Loire Valley. In Jura, it is used to create "vin de paille" dessert wines. Here, the grape is known as Melon d'Arbois


title: Chardonnay content: or Gamay blanc and is sometimes blended with Savagnin. It is most widely found in Arbois, Côtes du Jura, and L'Étoile AOCs. In the Loire, up to 20% of Chardonnay can be included in the Chenin blanc-based wines of "Anjou blanc" and more producers are using the grape to soften some of the edges of Chenin blanc. It can also be used in the sparkling wines of Saumur and some Muscadet producers have begun experimenting with oak-aged Chardonnay. In North America, particularly California, Chardonnay found another region where it could thrive and produce a style of wine noticeably different from


title: Chardonnay content: that of France. It is the dominant white wine variety of the area, overtaking Riesling in 1990. In the United States, it is found most notably in California, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, but also in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Vermont wine. In Canada, Chardonnay is found in British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec., and in Mexico is found in Baja California(Valle de Guadalupe) and in Coahuila(Valle de Parras) states. The first


title: Chardonnay content: successful commercial production of California Chardonnay was from plantings in the Livermore Valley AVA. Wente Vineyards developed a Chardonnay clone that was used to introduce the grape variety in several Californian vineyards throughout the 1940s. In the 1950s, James David Zellerbach, one-time US Ambassador to Rome, started Hanzell Vineyards winery and dedicated it to making Burgundian-style Chardonnay. His success encouraged other Californian winemakers to follow suit and culminated in Chateau Montelena's victory over Burgundy Chardonnay in the 1976 blind tasting event conducted by French judges known as the Judgment of Paris. In response, the demand for Californian Chardonnay increased and


title: Chardonnay content: Californian winemakers rushed to increase plantings. In the 1980s, the popularity of Californian Chardonnay increased so much, the number of vines planted in the state eclipsed that of France by 1988. By 2005, nearly accounted for almost 25% of the world's total Chardonnay plantings. The early trend was to imitate the great Burgundy wines, but this soon gave way to more rich buttery and oaked styles. Starting with the 1970s, the focus was on harvesting the grapes at more advanced degrees of ripeness and higher Brix levels. New oak barrels were used to produce wines that were big in body


title: Chardonnay content: and mouthfeel. Frank J. Prial of "The New York Times" was an early critic of this style, particularly because of the lack of "food friendliness" that was common with these massive wines. Another criticism of California Chardonnays, and one that has been levied against other Californian wines, is the very high alcohol levels which can make a wine seem out of balance. In recent years, California winemakers have been using process such as reverse osmosis and spinning cones to bring the alcohol levels down to 12 to 14%. The California wine regions that seem to favor producing premium quality Chardonnay


title: Chardonnay content: are the ones that are most influenced, climatically, by coastal fogs that can slow the ripening of the grape and give it more time to develop its flavors. The regions of Alexander Valley, Los Carneros, Santa Maria Valley, Russian River Valley, and other parts of Sonoma County have shown success in producing wines that reflect more Burgundian styles. Other regions often associated with Chardonnay include Napa Valley, Monterey County, and Santa Barbara County. The California Central Valley is home to many mass-produced Chardonnay brands, as well as box and jug wine production. While the exact style of the wine varies


title: Chardonnay content: by producer, some of the "terroir" characteristics associated with California Chardonnay include "flinty" notes with the Russian River Valley and mango and guava from Monterey. A large portion of the Californian sparkling wine industry uses Chardonnay grapes from Carneros, Alexander, and Russian River valleys, with these areas attracting the attention of Champagne producers such as Bollinger, Louis Roederer, Moët et Chandon, and the Taittinger family, which have opened up wineries in last few decades. Chardonnay was one of the first European grape varieties to have been grown commercially east of the Rocky Mountains. After three centuries of failure with "V.


title: Chardonnay content: vinifera", this achievement was realized in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. Frenchman Charles Fournier and Russian Konstantin Frank experimented with Chardonnay and other varietals in hopes of producing sparkling wines based on Old World grapes for the Gold Seal wine company. In the late 1950s, they succeeded in harvesting the first commercial quantities of European grapes in eastern North America. Frank went on to found Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars which helped demonstrate that a winery in the eastern US can produce European-style wines as a basis for a winery business. Chardonnay became an important part of


title: Chardonnay content: that strategy. New York, like Burgundy and Washington, is a cool-climate viticultural region. Being cold tolerant, the Chardonnay grape is well suited for New York. Not only can it endure its cold winters, but also the variety buds late, reducing the risk of spring frosts. New York's comparatively cooler growing season causes slower ripening, requiring a longer time on the vine, which allows the grapes to develop greater complexity and character at more reasonable sugar levels than warmer Chardonnay-producing regions. New York has subsequently developed significant plantings of the variety since Fournier and Frank's early experiments. Washington Chardonnays can be


title: Chardonnay content: very similar to Californian Chardonnays, but tend to have more emphasis on fruit than creaminess. In 2000, it was the most widely planted premium wine grape in the state. Rather than using Dijon clones, Washington vineyards are planted with clones developed at the University of California-Davis that are designed to take longer to ripen in the warmer weather of the state's wine regions. This allows winemakers to maintain the acidity levels that balance the fruity and flint earthiness that have characterized Washington Chardonnay. Apple notes are common, and depending on producer and appellation, can range from flavors of 'Golden Delicious'


title: Chardonnay content: and 'Fuji' to 'Gala' and 'Jonathan'. In Oregon, the introduction of Dijon clones from Burgundy has helped to adapt the grape to the Oregon climate and soils. In Canada, Chardonnay has seen some success with rich, oaky styles produced in Ontario and lighter styles produced in Quebec and British Columbia. In 2009, Le Clos Jordanne winery, of Jordan Village on the Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, received critical acclaim for its 2005 Claystone Terrace Chardonnay, which won the top spot for Chardonnay in the "Judgement of Montreal" experts’ tasting. This recognition, which caught the attention of the wine community, resulted from a


title: Chardonnay content: blind tasting held in Quebec for "Cellier" magazine. Thirty-three years after the "Judgment of Paris", "Cellier" organized a blind tasting in Montreal based on the Judgment of Paris. In the "Judgement of Montreal", 10 judges at the "Cellier" tasting assessed 16 red and 14 white wines, primarily from France and California. The Chardonay from Le Clos Jordanne placed first out of the 14 white wines, some of which were notable international wines, including: Chateau Montelena, Mer Soleil, Kumeu River, an aged reserve wine from Rosemount Estates, and a number of Burgundian entrants from producers such as Drouhin, Lamy, Boisset, Maison


title: Chardonnay content: Louis Jadot, and others. Other great examples of Ontario chardonnay include Closson Chase and Norman Hardie from the Prince Edward County region, and Tawse Winery, Hidden Bench Vineyards, and Southbrook Vineyards from the Niagara region. The Chardonnay vintages of the early 1990s from British Columbia helped generate international attention to the quality of Canadian wines apart from ice wine varietals. In British Columbia, Chardonnay from the Okanagan are characterized by delicate citrus fruits. They are typically light-bodied, but producers who use barrel fermentation and oak aging can produce fuller-bodied wines. Like many grape varieties, Chardonnay first came to Australia in


title: Chardonnay content: the collection of James Busby in 1832, but it only really took off in the 1950s. It is most significant in South Australia, New South Wales — especially the Hunter Region - and Victoria. One of the first commercially successful Chardonnays was produced by Murray Tyrrell in the Hunter Valley in 1971. Tyrell's vineyard was planted with Chardonnay cuttings that he "borrowed" from Penfolds' experimental plantings by hopping over their barb-wire fence one night and pruning their vines. The export driven Australian wine industry was well situated for the Chardonnay boom of the 1980s and 1990s and Australia responded with


title: Chardonnay content: a unique style of wine that was characterized by big fruit flavors and easy approachability. To compensate for the very warm climate, richness was enhanced by the use of oak chips and acid was added during fermentation. During this period the number of Chardonnay plants increased fivefold and by 1990 it was the most widely planted white wine grape in Australia and third most planted overall behind Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. Early in the 21st century, demand outpaced supply and there was a shortage of Chardonnay grapes which prompted Australian winemakers to introduce new blending partners like Sémillon (known as


title: Chardonnay content: "SemChard") and Colombard. Being a rather neutral grape, Australian winemakers first approached Chardonnay in the same manner they were making wine from the similarly neutral Sultana grape. Aromatic yeast were added and maceration was extended to get more flavors from skin contact. While the style of Australian Chardonnay is mostly characterized by the mass-produced products of the hot Riverland region, the cooler climates of the Southern Highlands in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania have been creating more crisp, less oaked wines with lime notes. In the Cowra region, Chardonnay's citrus notes are emphasized while Hunter Valley examples have more


title: Chardonnay content: richness and smoky notes. The Adelaide Hills and Yarra Valley produce a more Burgundian style while Mount Barker in the Great Southern wine region of Western Australia produces Chardonnay that more closely resembles those of Chablis. A rare, isolated clone exists in the Mudgee region that locals believe traces its ancestry back to some of the first vines brought to Australia in the 19th century. While the wine made from this clone is not particularly distinguished, it can still be of very good quality. Overall, there has been a shift in style since the 1980s from deep golden, oily wines


title: Chardonnay content: with melon and butterscotch flavors to lighter, paler Chardonnays with more structure and notes of white peaches and nectarines. Sparkling wines from Chardonnay are produced in the cool regions of Geelong, Adelaide Hills, Macedon Ranges and Tasmania. Despite being more famous for its Sauvignon blanc production, Chardonnay was New Zealand's most widely planted grape variety from 1990 till 2002 when Sauvignon blanc finally surpassed it. The east coast of the North Island, in places like Hawke's Bay and Wairarapa, have seen the most success with Chardonnay wine that has noticeable acidity and leanness. As better clonal varieties are discovered and


title: Chardonnay content: planted, the overall quality of New Zealand Chardonnay have increased, particularly from places like Canterbury, Marlborough and Nelson. Some producers in the Gisborne region have recently developed a cult following for their Chardonnay among New Zealand wine drinkers. While many New Zealand winemakers are still developing a characteristic style, the Chardonnay produced so far have emphasized the grape's affinity for oak. Chardonnay has a long history in Italy but for a large part of it, the grape was commonly confused with Pinot blanc—often with both varieties interplanted in the same vineyard and blended together. This happened despite the fact that


title: Chardonnay content: Chardonnay grapes get more golden-yellow in color close to harvest time and can be visually distinguished from Pinot blanc. In the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol region this confusion appeared in the synonyms for each grape, with Pinot blanc being known as "Weissburgunder" (White Burgundy) and Chardonnay was known as "Gelber Weissburgunder" (Golden White Burgundy). By the late 20th century, more concentrated efforts were put into identifying Chardonnay and making pure varietal versions of the wine. In 1984, it was granted its first "Denominazione di origine controllata" (DOC) in the province of South Tyrol. By 2000, it was Italy's fourth most widely planted


title: Chardonnay content: white wine grape. Though many varietal forms of Chardonnay are produced, and the numbers are increasing, for most of its history in Italian winemaking Chardonnay was a blending grape. Besides Pinot bianco, Chardonnay can be found in blends with Albana, Catarratto, Cortese, Erbaluce, Favorita, Garganega, Grecanico, Incrocio Manzoni, Nuragus, Procanico, Ribolla Gialla, Verdeca, Vermentino and Viognier. It even blended into a dry White Zinfandel-style Nebbiolo wine that is made from the white juice of the red Nebbiolo grape prior to being dyed with skin contact. Most Chardonnay plantings are located in the northern wine regions, though plantings can be found


title: Chardonnay content: throughout Italy as far south as Sicily and Apulia. In Piedmont and Tuscany, the grape is being planted in sites that are less favorable to Dolcetto and Sangiovese respectively. In Lombardy, the grape is often used for "spumante" and in the Veneto it is often blended with Garganega to give more weight and structure to the wine. Chardonnay is also found in the Valle d'Aosta DOC and Friuli-Venezia Giulia wine region. Due to quarantine restrictions, plant cuttings were often smuggled into South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s and many times were misidentified as to what grape variety it really


title: Chardonnay content: was. A large portion of the Chardonnay plantings from this period turned out to be Auxerrois blanc. A similar event happened in the German wine region of Baden during the 1980s. By the late 1990s, efforts to promote "authentic" Chardonnay helped to increase plantings and by 2004 it was the third-most widely planted white wine grape behind Chenin blanc and Colombard. Winemakers in the Western Cape have experimented blending Chardonnay with Riesling and Sauvignon blanc. Outside of the regions discussed above, Chardonnay can be found in cooler climate sites in Italy, Greece, Israel and Lebanon as well as Austria, Bulgaria,


title: Chardonnay content: Croatia, England, Georgia, Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Serbia and Switzerland. In Austria, the grape varieties known as "Feinburgunder" in Burgenland & Vienna and "Morillon" in Styria was not identified as Chardonnay till the late 1980s. Today, Austrian Chardonnays range from the rich, oaked aged varieties to leaner, more aromatic styles based on Austrian Rieslings to sweet late harvest styles. In nearby Germany, this distinctly French wine grape was slow to gain a footing being only officially sanctioned since 1991. Today it is most commonly found in the Baden, Palatinate and Rheinhessen regions. In Switzerland, Chardonnay


title: Chardonnay content: is found mostly around Bündner Herrschaft, Geneva and Valais. In Spain, Chardonnay has been increasingly used in the sparkling wine Cava. It is also permitted in the "Denominación de Origen" (DO) wines of Costers del Segre, Navarra and Somontano. In the wine regions of the former Soviet Union, Chardonnay has lagged behind in white wine grapes plantings in favor Rkatsiteli, Aligote and Riesling. The Portuguese experimentation with Chardonnay has been mostly influenced by flying winemakers from Australia and the examples produced so far are very New World in style. In the cool-climate South American wine regions of Argentina's Uco Valley


title: Chardonnay content: and Chile's Casablanca, Chardonnay has started to develop a presence. In the 1990s, Chardonnay became the second most widely planted white grape variety in Argentina-second only Torrontés. In Chile, it has surpassed Sauvignon blanc and Sauvignon vert to be the most widely planted white wine grape. India and Uruguay have been steadily increasing their plantings. Chardonnay lends itself to most any style of wine making from dry still wines, to sparkling wines to sweet late harvest and even botrytized wines (though its susceptibility to other less favorable rot makes these wines rarer). The two winemaking decisions that most widely affect


title: Chardonnay content: the end result of a Chardonnay wine is whether or not to use malolactic fermentation and the degree of oak influence used for the wine. With malolactic fermentation (or MLF), the harder malic acid gets converted into the softer lactic acid, and diacetyl which creates the "buttery-ness" that is associated with some styles of Chardonnay. The wines that do not go through MLF will have more green (unripe) apple like flavors. Oak can be introduced during fermentation or after in the form of the barrel aging. Depending on the amount of charring that the oak was treated with, this can


title: Chardonnay content: introduce a "toastiness" and flavors that many wine drinkers mistake as a characteristic of the grape itself. These flavors can include caramel, cream, smoke, spice, coconut, cinnamon, cloves and vanilla. Other winemaking decisions that can have a significant effect include the temperature of fermentation and what time, if any, that the wine allowed to spend aging on the lees. Burgundian winemaking tends to favor extended contact on the lees and even "stirring up" the lees within the wine while it is aging in the barrel in a process known as "bâttonage". Colder fermentation temperatures produces more "tropical" fruit flavors like


title: Chardonnay content: mango and pineapple. The "Old World" style of winemaking favors the use of wild, or ambient yeast, though some will also use specially cultivated yeast that can impart aromatic qualities to the wine. A particular style of yeast used in Champagne is the "Prise de Mousse" that is cultivated for use worldwide in sparkling Chardonnay wines. A potential drawback of using wild yeast is that the fermentation process can go very slow with the results of the yeasts being very unpredictable and producing potentially a very different wine each year. One Burgundian winemaker that favors the use of only wild


title: Chardonnay content: yeast is Domaine des Comtes Lafon which had the fermentation of its 1963 Chardonnay batch take 5 years to complete when the fermentation process normally only takes a matter of weeks. The time of harvesting is a crucial decision because the grape quickly begins to lose acidity as it ripens. For sparkling wine production, the grapes will be harvested early and slightly unripe to maintain the acid levels. Sparkling Chardonnay based wines tend to exhibit more floral and steely flavors in their youth. As the wine ages, particularly if it spends significant time on lees, the wines will develop "toasty"


title: Chardonnay content: notes. Chardonnay grapes usually have little trouble developing sugar content, even in cooler climates, which translates into high potential alcohol levels and limits the need for chaptalization. On the flip side, low acid levels can be a concern which make the wine taste "flabby" and dull. Winemakers can counteract this by adding tartaric acid in a process known as "acidification". In cooler climates, the extract and acidity of Chardonnay is magnified which has the potential of producing very concentrated wines that can develop through bottle aging. Chardonnay can blend well with other grapes and still maintain some of its unique


title: Chardonnay content: character. The grapes most often blended with Chardonnay include Chenin blanc, Colombard and Sémillon. Due to the "malleability" of Chardonnay in winemaking and its ability to reflect its "terroir", there is not one distinct universal "style" or set of constants that could be applied to Chardonnay made across the globe. According to Jancis Robinson, a sense of "smokiness" is one clue that could be picked up in a blind tasting of Chardonnay but there are many styles that do not have any "smokey" notes. Compared to other white wine grapes like Sauvignon blanc, Gewürztraminer and Viognier-Chardonnay has a more subtle


title: Chardonnay content: and muted nose with no overwhelming aromatics that jump out of the wine glass. The identifying styles of Chardonnay are regionally based. For example, pineapple notes are more commonly associated with Chardonnay from Napa Valley while Chablis will have more notes of green apples. While many examples of Chardonnay can benefit from a few years of bottle aging, especially if they have high acidity, most Chardonnays are meant to be consumed in their youth. A notable exception to this is the most premium examples of Chablis and white Burgundies. Due to the wide range of styles, Chardonnay has the potential


title: Chardonnay content: to be paired with a diverse spectrum of food types. It is most commonly paired with roast chicken and other white meats such as turkey. Heavily oak influenced Chardonnays do not pair well with more delicate fish and seafood dish. Instead, those wines tend to go better with smoked fish, spicy southeast Asian cuisine, garlic and guacamole dips. The regional influences of Chardonnay can help it pair with different food styles. Chardonnays from Washington, which is characterized by maintaining more acidity, tend to pair well with tomato-based dishes and items featuring sweet onions. Older, more mellow Chardonnays are often paired


title: Chardonnay content: with more "earthy" dishes like mushroom soup and aged cheese. Chardonnay long had a reputation as one of France's great white wines, but due to the dominance of geographical labeling, the fact that Chardonnay was the grape behind white Burgundy was not widely known by the wine-drinking public. The success of California and new world Chardonnays, partly encouraged by the Californian showing at the Judgment of Paris wine tasting, brought varietal wine labeling to more prominence and the easy to pronounce Chardonnay grape was one of the largest beneficiaries. In the late 1980s, a sort of "Chardonnay-mania" developed as wine


title: Chardonnay content: regions (particularly new and developing ones) dramatically increased their planting of the grape to meet the worldwide demand. As more vineyards responded with massive new plantings of the variety, they found that fashions were changing again. The market was drinking more red wine, and there was a backlash against heavy, oaky, New World Chardonnays in favor of lighter wines such as Pinot grigio. There was a new fashion, "ABC" - Anything But Chardonnay, identified by Frank Prial in 1995. Another reason for the backlash was that Chardonnay was seen as a symbol of the globalization of wine, in which local


title: Chardonnay content: grape varieties were grubbed up in favor of the big names demanded by international markets. Oz Clarke described a view of Chardonnay as "...the ruthless coloniser and destroyer of the world's vineyards and the world's palates." The criticism was centered on the habits of winemakers to pull out or give up on local varieties in order to plant more Chardonnay which offered potentially more income but lack the uniqueness and character of local varieties. Examples of this occurred in south Italy and Spain when ancient Negroamaro, Primitivo, Grenache and Mataro vineyards were ripped up in favor of new Chardonnay plantings.


title: Chardonnay content: Chardonnay became very fashionable in the 1990s, as the stereotypical drink of young urban women of the Bridget Jones generation. By 2002, the association of chardonnay with suburban, unsophisticated tastes was being explored in Australian TV show Kath & Kim, where lower middle class characters mispronounce the varietal as 'kardonnay'. Despite the backlash, Chardonnay remains very popular. In 2004 Chardonnay was estimated to be the world's 6th most widely grown grape variety, covering . Currently trials are being run on genetically modified Chardonnay. Trials are underway in the US and South Africa. Due to the worldwide recognition of the name


title: Chardonnay content: of "Chardonnay", many of these synonyms have fallen out of favor as winemakers use the more marketable Chardonnay: Arboisier, Arnaison blanc, Arnoison, Aubain, Aubaine, Auvergnat blanc, Auvernas, Auvernas blanc, Auvernat blanc, Auxeras, Auxerras blanc, Auxerrois blanc, Auxois, Auxois blanc, Bargeois blanc, Beaunois, Biela Klevanjika, Blanc de Champagne, Blanc de Cramant, Breisgauer Suessling, Breisgauer Sussling, Burgundi Feher, Chablis, Chardenai, Chardenay, Chardenet, Chardennet, Chardonay, Chardonnet, Chatenait, Chatey Petit, Chatte, Chaudenay, Chaudenet, Chaudent, Clävner, Clevner Weiss, Cravner, Epinette, Epinette blanc, Epinette blanche, Epinette de Champagne, Ericey blanc, Feher Chardonnay, Feherburgundi, Feinburgunder, Gamay blanc, Gelber Weissburgunder, Gentil blanc, Grosse Bourgogne, Klawner, Klevanjka Biela, Klevner,


title: Chardonnay content: Lisant, Luisant, Luizannais, Luizant, Luzannois, Maconnais, Maurillon blanc, Melon blanc, Melon D'Arbois, Meroué, Moreau blanc, Morillon blanc, Moulon, Noirien blanc, Obaideh, Petit Chatey, Petit Sainte-Marie, Petite Sainte Marie, Pineau blanc, Pino Sardone, Pino Shardone, Pinot Blanc à Cramant, Pinot Blanc Chardonnay, Pinot Chardonnay, Pinot de Bourgogne, Pinot Giallo, Pinot Planc, Plant de Tonnerre, Romere, Romeret, Rouci Bile, Rousseau, Roussot, Ruländer Weiß, Sainte Marie Petite, Sardone, Shardone, Shardonne, Später Weiß Burgunder, Weiß Burgunder (normally refers to Pinot blanc), Weiß Clevner, Weiß Edler, Weiß Elder, Weiß Klewner, Weiß Silber, Weißedler, Weißer Clevner, Weißer Rulander. Chardonnay Chardonnay () is a green-skinned grape variety


title: Chicken content: Chicken The chicken ("Gallus gallus domesticus") is a type of domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the red junglefowl. It is one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, with a total population of more than 19 billion as of 2011. There are more chickens in the world than any other bird or domesticated fowl. Humans keep chickens primarily as a source of food (consuming both their meat and eggs) and, less commonly, as pets. Originally raised for cockfighting or for special ceremonies, chickens were not kept for food until the Hellenistic period (4th–2nd centuries BC). Genetic studies have pointed


title: Chicken content: to multiple maternal origins in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and South Asia, but with the clade found in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa originating in the Indian subcontinent. From ancient India, the domesticated chicken spread to Lydia in western Asia Minor, and to Greece by the 5th century BC. Fowl had been known in Egypt since the mid-15th century BC, with the "bird that gives birth every day" having come to Egypt from the land between Syria and Shinar, Babylonia, according to the annals of Thutmose III. In the UK and Ireland, adult male chickens over the


title: Chicken content: age of one year are primarily known as "cocks", whereas in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, they are more commonly called "roosters". Males less than a year old are "cockerels". Castrated roosters are called "capons" (surgical and chemical castration are now illegal in some parts of the world). Females over a year old are known as "hens", and younger females as "pullets", although in the egg-laying industry, a pullet becomes a hen when she begins to lay eggs, at 16 to 20 weeks of age. In Australia and New Zealand (also sometimes in Britain), there is a


title: Chicken content: generic term "chook" to describe all ages and both sexes. The young are often called "chicks". "Chicken" originally referred to young domestic fowl. The species as a whole was then called "domestic fowl", or just "fowl". This use of "chicken" survives in the phrase "Hen and Chickens", sometimes used as a British public house or theatre name, and to name groups of one large and many small rocks or islands in the sea (see for example Hen and Chicken Islands). The word "chicken" is sometimes erroneously construed to mean females exclusively, despite the term "hen" for females being in wide


title: Chicken content: circulation, and the term “rooster” for males being that most commonly used. In the Deep South of the United States, chickens are also referred to by the slang term "yardbird". Chickens are omnivores. In the wild, they often scratch at the soil to search for seeds, insects and even animals as large as lizards, small snakes or young mice. The average chicken may live for five to ten years, depending on the breed. The world's oldest known chicken was a hen which died of heart failure at the age of 16 years according to the Guinness World Records. Roosters can


title: Chicken content: usually be differentiated from hens by their striking plumage of long flowing tails and shiny, pointed feathers on their necks ("hackles") and backs ("saddle"), which are typically of brighter, bolder colours than those of females of the same breed. However, in some breeds, such as the Sebright chicken, the rooster has only slightly pointed neck feathers, the same colour as the hen's. The identification can be made by looking at the comb, or eventually from the development of spurs on the male's legs (in a few breeds and in certain hybrids, the male and female chicks may be differentiated by


title: Chicken content: colour). Adult chickens have a fleshy crest on their heads called a comb, or cockscomb, and hanging flaps of skin either side under their beaks called wattles. Collectively, these and other fleshy protuberances on the head and throat are called caruncles. Both the adult male and female have wattles and combs, but in most breeds these are more prominent in males. A "muff" or "beard" is a mutation found in several chicken breeds which causes extra feathering under the chicken's face, giving the appearance of a beard. Domestic chickens are not capable of long distance flight, although lighter birds are


title: Chicken content: generally capable of flying for short distances, such as over fences or into trees (where they would naturally roost). Chickens may occasionally fly briefly to explore their surroundings, but generally do so only to flee perceived danger. Chickens are gregarious birds and live together in flocks. They have a communal approach to the incubation of eggs and raising of young. Individual chickens in a flock will dominate others, establishing a "pecking order", with dominant individuals having priority for food access and nesting locations. Removing hens or roosters from a flock causes a temporary disruption to this social order until a


title: Chicken content: new pecking order is established. Adding hens, especially younger birds, to an existing flock can lead to fighting and injury. When a rooster finds food, he may call other chickens to eat first. He does this by clucking in a high pitch as well as picking up and dropping the food. This behaviour may also be observed in mother hens to call their chicks and encourage them to eat. A rooster's crowing is a loud and sometimes shrill call and sends a territorial signal to other roosters. However, roosters may also crow in response to sudden disturbances within their surroundings.


title: Chicken content: Hens cluck loudly after laying an egg, and also to call their chicks. Chickens also give different warning calls when they sense a predator approaching from the air or on the ground. To initiate courting, some roosters may dance in a circle around or near a hen ("a circle dance"), often lowering the wing which is closest to the hen. The dance triggers a response in the hen and when she responds to his "call", the rooster may mount the hen and proceed with the mating. More specifically, mating typically involves the following sequence: 1. Male approaching the hen. 2.


title: Chicken content: Male pre-copulatory waltzing. 3. Male waltzing. 4. Female crouching (receptive posture) or stepping aside or running away (if unwilling to copulate). 5. Male mounting. 6. Male treading with both feet on hen’s back. 7. Male tail bending (following successful copulation). Hens will often try to lay in nests that already contain eggs and have been known to move eggs from neighbouring nests into their own. The result of this behaviour is that a flock will use only a few preferred locations, rather than having a different nest for every bird. Hens will often express a preference to lay in the


title: Chicken content: same location. It is not unknown for two (or more) hens to try to share the same nest at the same time. If the nest is small, or one of the hens is particularly determined, this may result in chickens trying to lay on top of each other. There is evidence that individual hens prefer to be either solitary or gregarious nesters. Under natural conditions, most birds lay only until a clutch is complete, and they will then incubate all the eggs. Hens are then said to "go broody". The broody hen will stop laying and instead will focus on


title: Chicken content: the incubation of the eggs (a full clutch is usually about 12 eggs). She will "sit" or "set" on the nest, protesting or pecking in defense if disturbed or removed, and she will rarely leave the nest to eat, drink, or dust-bathe. While brooding, the hen maintains the nest at a constant temperature and humidity, as well as turning the eggs regularly during the first part of the incubation. To stimulate broodiness, owners may place several artificial eggs in the nest. To discourage it, they may place the hen in an elevated cage with an open wire floor. Breeds artificially


title: Chicken content: developed for egg production rarely go broody, and those that do often stop part-way through the incubation. However, other breeds, such as the Cochin, Cornish and Silkie, do regularly go broody, and they make excellent mothers, not only for chicken eggs but also for those of other species—even those with much smaller or larger eggs and different incubation periods, such as quail, pheasants, turkeys or geese. Fertile chicken eggs hatch at the end of the incubation period, about 21 days. Development of the chick starts only when incubation begins, so all chicks hatch within a day or two of each


title: Chicken content: other, despite perhaps being laid over a period of two weeks or so. Before hatching, the hen can hear the chicks peeping inside the eggs, and will gently cluck to stimulate them to break out of their shells. The chick begins by "pipping"; pecking a breathing hole with its egg tooth towards the blunt end of the egg, usually on the upper side. The chick then rests for some hours, absorbing the remaining egg yolk and withdrawing the blood supply from the membrane beneath the shell (used earlier for breathing through the shell). The chick then enlarges the hole, gradually


title: Chicken content: turning round as it goes, and eventually severing the blunt end of the shell completely to make a lid. The chick crawls out of the remaining shell, and the wet down dries out in the warmth of the nest. Hens usually remain on the nest for about two days after the first chick hatches, and during this time the newly hatched chicks feed by absorbing the internal yolk sac. Some breeds sometimes start eating cracked eggs, which can become habitual. Hens fiercely guard their chicks, and brood them when necessary to keep them warm, at first often returning to the


title: Chicken content: nest at night. She leads them to food and water and will call them toward edible items, but seldom feeds them directly. She continues to care for them until they are several weeks old. In 2006, scientists researching the ancestry of birds "turned on" a chicken recessive gene, "talpid2", and found that the embryo jaws initiated formation of teeth, like those found in ancient bird fossils. John Fallon, the overseer of the project, stated that chickens have "...retained the ability to make teeth, under certain conditions... ." The domestic chicken is descended primarily from the red junglefowl ("Gallus gallus") and


title: Chicken content: is scientifically classified as the same species. As such, it can and does freely interbreed with populations of red junglefowl. Recent genetic analysis has revealed that at least the gene for yellow skin was incorporated into domestic birds through hybridization with the grey junglefowl ("G. sonneratii"). The traditional view is that chickens were first domesticated for cockfighting in Asia, Africa, and Europe. In the last decade, there have been a number of genetic studies to clarify the origins. According to one early study, a single domestication event which took place in what now is the country of Thailand gave rise