[Sca-cooks] Wine was Re: vinegar and sauerbraten

[Chris Stanifer]

--- Louise Smithson <helewyse at yahoo.com> wrote:

  Thus Medieval
> wines, which were brewed with grape juice and yeast must have had much the same alcohol range as
> modern wines. Possibly even less because selection for alcohol tolerant strains had not taken
> place, and innoculation of the wine with specific selected wine strains was not happening yet. 
> So your thesis that medieval wines were stronger than modern ones does not stand up to
> biological truths. Sorry, the habit of waterin!
>  g wines
>  was a cultural one. 

Well....well...what about.....

Nah... I can't argue with that bit of science :)

I'm not confident, though, that the modern practice of yeast strain cultivation and manipulation
has not lessened the alcohol tolerance of modern yeasts.  I'm not saying that it has, merely that
I am not convinced that it hasn't.  The modern palate tends to favor tannins, acidity, fruit
essence, clarity, etc over alcoholic strength, and I would imagine that yeast strains have been
cultivated and manipulated to provide these particular characteristics in a finished wine.  In
order to prevent these characteristics from being overpowered by the heat and bitterness of
alcohol, it would *seem* that the strains would be engineered to provide less alcohol.  So, in
that sense, and if that theory holds true (and I'm not saying that it does, merely that I'm not
convinced that it doesn't), then it may be safe to say that modern yeasts are really not that
similar to their medieval antecedents, and a more alcohol tolerant strain may have been prevailant
in medieval times, and Antiquity.  A more alcohol tolerant strain would be able to convert more of
the residual sugar in the grape must into alcohol before reaching the toxic level.  Thus, stronger
wines.

Discuss... :)

William de Grandfort

=====
Through teeth of sharks, the Autumn barks.....and Winter squarely bites me.


		
__________________________________ 
Do you Yahoo!? 
Yahoo! Mail - now with 250MB free storage. Learn more.
http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250