HERB - Re: HERB -Reply about wines -Reply

[Norman White]

Jin Liu Ch'ang here in a continuing discussing on the aging of wines:

In the original post,
>>I {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. 
I replied:
>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. 
She replied:
>In Pre-Medieval times wines were aged in ceramic >vessels called amphorae. Galen is referring to wines >aged in these.  In classical times (when Galen was >alive) yes, wines could be aged sometimes for
>years.  They were also so thick and strongflavored >that it was impossible to drink them without watering >them down and were made with sea water in many >cases. HOWEVER, during the Middle Ages wines were
>for some reason no longer stored in amphorae.  It is >surmised that the the knowledge of haw to make >them was lost, but that is just a theory.
> In the Middle Ages wines were stored in wooden >casks and were therefore not aged longer than a year >due to the previous reasons I mentioned. 
Turner, who was living at the time (died 1568) just used the word of Galen to confirm his thoughts about older wines which he preferred.  In checking other sources I have found what you say to be partially correct.  According to M. K. James, who studied the English wine trade with Gascony (M. K. James. 1971. Studies of the medieval wine trade. Clarendon Press, Oxford), Gascon wines, which made up a majority of the English wine trade due to a
close alliance with England, were always dry (according to her) and usually white and only kept one year with the older wines destroyed upon arrival of the newer wines (in some periods according to law) because they did not keep well.  
It apparently had nothing to do with the container as other wines were not necessarily bad after one year.  Francis (Francis, A. D. 1973. The wine trade. Barnes and Noble Books, NY) agreed that Gascon wines along with the wines of Florence did not age well and were consumed within a year but stated that sweet wines aged better.  This allowed the import of these wines from the Levant and Portugal from which it might take over a year to reach
England.  The stronger 'aromatic ' wines of Portugal were highly regarded and were allowed to mature for 3-4 years before consumption.

I had also stated:
> 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.
To which she stated:
>Although Kenelme Digby is considered only slightly >out of period one MAJOR invention was developed >between 1600 and the day his book was published.  >Wine and Beer bottles and the modern corking >method were developed, again making it possible to >age beverages (and led, some years later, some guy >named Dom Perignon to develop the Champagne
>method)  But the modern (or its seventeenth century >equivalent) bottling method did not exist in our >period.
Dom Perignon re-introduced the use of corks outside of Spain and Portugal sometimes well after the death of Digbie as he did not become the head of the wine cellars at St. Peter's Abbey until 1668 (Fleming, A. 1975. Alcohol: The delightful poison. Delacorte Press, NY), after the death of Digbie.  Digbie does not mention the use of corks and most of his meads were aged in wooden casks.  In any case bottling wines was well established long prior to
Dom Perignon.  What he introduced was sparkling wines (champagne) and the use of corks.  Prior to his re-introduction of corks, the usual wine stopper was a piece of wood wrapped in hemp and dipped in olive oil (Fleming,1975).  He used the new corks as the older method of sealing bottles did not allow the pressure to build up sufficiently to be sparkling.  I found no mention of the shipping of wines in any container but barrels during period
times which I assume means that bottling if done in period was only done at the retail level if not at the home as a serving aid.

One thing I did say which was possibly incorrect was to state the possibility that the wines were sherry-like.  This may be true but the name "sherry" as a type of wine did not come into general use until about 1632 (Francis, 1973).  But the fact that sherry was recognized so soon after period implies that the oxidized nature of sherry was recognized by this time and that most wines were not so oxidized.

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