SC - Ideal vs. practical

[Anna Potts]

- ---Cindy Renfrow <renfrow at skylands.net> wrote:

> TO MAKE IPOCRAS WITH RED WINE - 1660

While we're on the subject...

I submitted my first try at hypocras at our recent Midwinter A&S
competition.  I used the Forme of Cury recipe from _A Sip Through
Time_ and other sources.  It was my first shot at applying the methods
I've learned from this list of finding, redacting and interpreting a
primary source with the help of good secondary sources (thanks
everyone - I've been listening!) And it was an easy way to play with
all those wonderful period spices. 

The response was positive (assuming the judges' request to take it
home with them was a good thing :> ).  The main comments were "Did you
strain it through the sleeve?" (No, I used a cloth bladder for the
spices, but I'm making a "hippocrates sleeve" for my next try at
Kingdom A&S) and "You should document the kind of wine used".  

Now, I deliberately did not do that, because 
1. The various references I've seen don't specify beyond red or white 
2. My impression of hypocras as a way to redeem a not-so-great wine
3. It was a California cabernet sauvignon that I bought on sale.

So, does anyone know what kind of wine would have been used for
hypocras?  And the best modern equivalent?

Many thanks,

Tara 
(settling back to lurker mode to listen again)

PS:  My favorite internet hypocras reference describes a production of
Carmina Burana as 'Une aventure médiévale de danse, de musique et de
chant dans une ambiance sentant bon l'hypocras, la cervoise et le
claret.' Wish I could go to that show - in Avignon.
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