SC - Spiced Wine

[Uduido at aol.com]

In a message dated 97-04-15 01:57:09 EDT, you write:

<< I have seen several mentions of allspice and vanilla, and have gotten the 
 impression they are not period -- or is there part of an argument that I 
 missed? >>

Allspice and vanilla were introduced well after period by anyone's
definition. There was no argument about the spiced wine only opionions on
whether mundane commersial spiced wine could be used in recipes that are
period. Since I am a hobby vintner and have not come across any recipes that
included the offending spices and through conversations with professional
vintnors who produce spiced wine, e.g. Brotherhood "Holiday" wine, have not
found that these spices are used commercially, I still think that it would be
OK (not authentic necessarily. :-)) to use most commercial spiced wine in the
place of home-made Hippocras.

Lord Ras