SC - 16th Century recipes a few questions

[Huette von Ahrens]

- --- Valoise Armstrong <varmstro at zipcon.net> wrote:
> Okay, I'm going to display the depth of my ignorance
> of wine, but
> since Sabina Welser specifically mentioned a sweet
> red wine for the
> strawberry tart wouldn't it make sense, if Malmsey
> or Malavosia was
> hard to find, to substitute another sweet red wine?
> Would using a
> sweet white wine make a big difference in the
> outcome? 

It would probably be just a matter of taste.  Yes,
there would be a difference between a red and a white
wine taste.  But only to a discriminating palate.
> 
> In the messages in this digest all these wines were
> suggested: 
>  sweet sherry, German May Wine , light mead, nutty
> desert wine (which one?).
>  Kabinet, trochenbarenauslese or an icewein. Okay,
> of all those I am
> familiar with sherry and mead. Even though I like a
> nice mead, if left
> to my own devices I would likely pick sherry.
> 
> Could someone sort through the rest and tell me what
> they are in
> particular. I thought icewein was made from frozen
> grapes, is it
> either red or white or both?
> 
> Valoise

If I am not mistaken, most German wines are white.  I
am sure that there are a few exceptions that I am not
aware of, but mostly they are white.  Kabinet is made
from a grapes picked at the regular harvest time. 
Auslese was picked later, allowing more natural grape
sugars to form.  Berenauslese means very late harvest,
meaning that it is even sweeter. Trockenberenauslese
means very very late harvest, meaning that it is still
more sweet.  It tastes very raisiny.  Eiswein is made
from grapes that are still one the vine and have just
gone thru a cold freeze.  This can happen at any time
in Germany.  The grapes are picked while the frost is
still on the grapes and pressed right there in the
field to get that special taste frost brings to
grapes. The grapes are not allowed to defrost before
they are pressed, nor are the grapes frozen after
picking.  It is rare to find an eiswein and fairly
expensive.  But I do own several bottles and only
drink one at special occasions.  This is according to
Pieroth, the German winemaker I deal with the most.

Maywine is a special occasion wine made only in May in
Germany. It is a sweet dessert wine that has been
infused with the flavor of woodruff during the
fermentation period.  Woodruff is a sweet-scented
herb, if I am not mistaken, and it creates a different
flavored wine.  Not everyone likes Maywine.  

Huette
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