[Sca-cooks] Is this a wine myth?

[Ysabeau]

Note: the following is purely conjecture and you will probably find
many holes in the logic.

Okay, grapes for wine are traditionally harvested in the fall. If we
go with the idea that wine in casks will spoil faster, then it is
possible that some/many wines that were casked the previous fall might
begin to spoil by the following winter. Heating the wine and spicing
it would be a way to get rid of spoiled wine but I would think that it
would take a lot of spices to cover up that vinegary flavor. All of
the spiced wines I drank in Germany involved spices that were blended
to accent that particular type of wine. Granted, I lived between the
Mosel and the Rhein...they were justifiably proud of their wines. The
only people I could see possibly trying to pass off bad wine by
spicing it would be unscrupulous tavern owners and itinerant hawkers.
They could give it to people passing through who would not be repeat
customers anyway.

Just my random thoughts,
Ysabeau



On 4/25/07, Kathleen Madsen <kmadsen12000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 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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