In the Christian faith, the measuring wine (also known as altar wine) plays a central role in the transformation of bread and wine into Christ's flesh and blood (transubstantiation), which is not only symbolically understood, and which goes back to the First Communion in the New Testament of the Bible. For this reason, wine has always played an important role in the Catholic Church and was (also) the motivation to make a special effort with regard to viticulture and winemaking. In Europe, especially the three monastic orders of the Benedictines, Carthusians and Cistercians have earned great merits. During the conquest of the New World by Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors from the beginning of the 16th century onwards, the planting of vines brought with them and the production of mass wine was also the beginning and impetus of viticulture in North and South America. The monastic orders of the Franciscans in California and the Jesuits in Peru played an important role in this.