HERB - long pepper -Reply about wines

[Norman White]

Jin Liu Ch'ang here,

Lettice, Lady Peyton wrote:
>Period wines were not aged longer than one year.  >Since thay were bulk stored in wooden casks they >didn't last any longer without oxidation or vinigration. This is not true.  William Turner wrote extensively in his 1568 book ("A Book of Wines" amazingly close to the same title as the one she mentioned) about aged wines quoting Galen and other older sources.  Kenelme Digbie in his slightly out of period book (published after his death in 1669)
also talked of aging his meads for times over a year.  One thought comes to my mind is that possibly many period wines may have been slightly (or more than slightly) oxidized in a manner similar to today's sherry.  I feel that the meads (actually metheglins by today's terminology) may have aged better because many of the herbs used in the recipe may have inhibited oxidation.

>Due to the ingredients used in the recipes in this
>book (including "Wine from Memory") they wouldn't >have been aged either.  
This may be true.

Sounds like a book worth having.

Jin Liu Ch'ang
a.k.a. Norman White
gn-white at tamu.edu

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