SC - Hyppocras

[Mordonna22@aol.com]

- -----Original Message-----
From: Terri Spencer <taracook at yahoo.com>
To: sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG <sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG>
Date: Sunday, March 21, 1999 5:57 PM
Subject: Re: SC - hypocras question


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

While admittedly no wine expert, my readings suggest that the wine used was
what was generally available thus the wines used were probably nothing
special.  I suspect that until quite late in period that such wines would be
what we would consider rather rough unaged wines.

>From "Vintage the Story of Wine".  "Maturity was not a factor that the
medieval wine critics concerned themselves with, except as it affected the
drinker's comfort.  Drinking wine so new that it is still, in the French
phrase, "trouble" can lead to severe "collywobbles".  If it was older than a
year, the chances were that the wine was spoiled.  The choice was distinctly
limited."  page 127.  From the same source in 1302 Petrus de Crescentiis of
Bologna in his "Liber Commodorum Ruralium" said that the right age for wine
was neither new (first year) nor old, which according to the "Vintage's"
author suggests that he preferred one or two year old wine best.  The author
goes on to state that the majority of critics held that it was better simply
to wait until fermentation was over and drink up.  "The more northern ( and
weaker) the wine the more important to drink it quickly."  Further reference
suggests Burgundy of high quality was drinkable at two years and according
to the author,  "The only known reference from the Middle Ages to any wine
being especially good at as old as four years was, remarkably enough, the
exceptional Chablis vintage of 1396."

The author says that according to the Catalan author Eiximenis "...the
French like white wines, Burgundians red, Germans aromatic, and the English
beer."

I suggest that you use what ever table wine, red or white,  you want as it
is probably at least as good as they would have used in period and probably
better.  Realizing that your average A/S judge would probably spit out a
"period" tasting wine as offensive to his modern palate, I would just chose
a wine that tasted good to you to as my base to start.

As a side note the use of sulfur was permitted in wine in Germany by royal
decree in 1487.  If you want to go to the trouble you can find "organic"
wines in which no sulfides or "additives" are used.

Such is, in my humble opinion, what I would suggest.  We will now see what
storms of controversy result.

Daniel Raoul le Vascon du Navarre'
Shire of Sea March, Kingdom of Trimaris

============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================