[Sca-cooks] Another contempory account of drinking water

[Volker Bach]

XvLoverCrimvX at aol.com schrieb:
>
> In a message dated 6/30/01 12:34:58 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> stefan at texas.net writes:
>
> > Well, that was one way that water was often drunk. The fact that the
> >  water had to be boiled to make ale helped sterilize the water. But
> >  water was also used when wine was drunk. It appears that most wine
> >  in the Middle Ages was diluted with water.
>
> I believe the wine in Ancient Rome was a syrup and during parties or normal
> drinking, water was added by measures. The strength of the wine was measured
> by how much measures of water was placed in. I don't know if people in the
> Middle Ages did this or not.

Throughout Antiquity, wine was drunk diluted to
some degree (except in the middle east, which gave
them a bad name with the Greeks and Romans).
However, this was most likely not done *because*
the wine was thick and syrupy - after all, the
Graeco-Romans wanted it that way (it would be easy
enough to stop putting all the honey, resin and
spices in). Gallic and northern Italian wines, as
far as we know, were reasonably close to modern
wines and could certainly be drunk undiluted,
though you wouldn't want to try that with the
famous vintages.
Rather, AFAIK, the feast culture of the day called
for drinking copious amounts (a good idea in
mediterranean heat, BTW) which, undiluted, would
have been . . . overeffective. Thus, it was
diluted to slow the onset of inebriation and
improve its refreshing qualities (one important
indicator of what kind of party you were going to
was the water-to-wine ratio). This, I think, is
also the key to the ancient love of strong,
sweet,. heavy wines - if you dilute them anyway,
you need strong taste.
For medieval practice, I have only the word of
Montamari handy, who states that diluted wine was
a common beverage of all classes in the
Mediterranean. I know that water-wine mixes in
various ratios were commonly drunk in
mediterraneanm countries until soft drinks reached
the countryside. It was rather like Ale in the
northern countries, a pleasant and refreshing
beverage that's safer than water (or at least felt
to be so) and can be guizzled all day against the
heat without getting more than slightly tipsy.
I'm fairly sure you can trace a continuous
tradition here if you took the trouble to dig.

Giano