SC - Re: was Duke's powder now wine in Northern Europe

[ChannonM at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/2/00 10:17:46 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
owner-sca-cooks at ansteorra.org writes:

<< I don't know that the Norse, at least in their home countries, drank
 wine or hippocras (spiced wine), though. I would think that beers and
 meads would be much more likely. The wine would have to be imported
 and hippocras often seems to have been made from the lower quality
 wines. Why import low quality wines? >>

I'm not sure about Denmark, but Ireland was importing wine in great 
quantities in the 12th C according to several sources;

>From the written account by Giraldas Cambrensis or Gerald of  Wales, comes a 
description of the riches of Ireland in 1187,
The island is rich in pastures and meadows, honey and milk, and also in wine, 
although not in vineyards. Bede, indeed, among his other commendations of 
Ireland, says, "that it does not lack vineyards"; while Solinus and Isidore 
affirm, "that there are no bees." But with all respect for them, they might 
have written just the contrary, that vineyards do not exist in the island, 
but that bees are found there. Vines it never possessed, nor any cultivators 
of them. Still, foreign commerce supplies it with wine in such plenty that 
the want of the growth of vines, and their natural production, is scarcely 
felt. Poitou, out of its superabundance, exports vast quantities of wine to 
Ireland, which willingly gives in return its ox-hides and the skins of cattle 
and wild beasts.

And;

Tolls charged in Dublin in 1233 by Henry the III, Lord of Ireland, for goods 
describes a limited variety of items  although it is suspected that the list 
is incomplete. The list includes;wheat ,oats, horse or mare, ox or cow, hogs, 
sheep, wine, grain, salt, fat, cheese, honey, butter, herrings , and salmon 
amoung other merchandise.

Hauviette