[Sca-cooks] Is this a wine myth?

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

Wow! That’s the first I've heard that one!!!!

1. according to humoral theory, spices in your wine helped digestion, etc
and were good after a heavy meal.
2. spoiled wine? Is vinegar. Also useful. :) and all the spices in the world
wont turn vinegar into wine. Even if you're a Victorian ;).
3. spiced wine is tasty! And can take a less than perfect (not spoiled, but
one that is not so tasty on its own) and make it much nicer. Like what I do
with crème de cassis and cheap white burgundies ;).

Sounds to me like she's talking out her nether reaches, taking the "spices
for spoiled food", lack of hops in early period, and "back then they were
stupid/primitive/no taste" and squishing them all together with a
justification for adding sulfites to modern wine!

--Anne-Marie

-----Original Message-----
From: sca-cooks-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org
[mailto:sca-cooks-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of Kathleen Madsen
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 7:28 AM
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Is this a wine myth?

So I'm *fairly* certain that this is that same
spoilage and spicing myth we hear all the time about
meats in medieval times - but I'd like to get some
feedback on it.  Having lived until recently in one of
the top producing wine regions of the world I really
enjoy it as a beverage.  I have been recieving an
online newsletter for a few weeks now that is heavily
into marketing the person writing it and some of the
info she's been putting out I am not all that
impressed with.  About a quarter of the newsletter is
about wine the remaining three quarters is about
advertising, events she's going to, how to send her
bottles for tasting, etc.  I'm completely unimpressed.

To whit, today's news article.  The topic is wines
served hot, which is rather odd as we are now well and
truly into Spring.  As she discusses mulled wine she
states, and I'm paraphrasing here as she has
copywrited this, that in the Victorian times wine
would spoil quickly as it was stored in oak casks and
they had yet to discover the preservative benefit of
adding sulfites to the young wine.  As a result they
had a lot of spoiled wine on hand and so merchants,
being the enterprising souls that they are, masked the
off flavor by heating the spoiled wine and mulling it
with a mixture of spices.

Is it just me or is this truly the load of bunk I
think it is?

Eibhlin, wine lover but never a vintner.
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