[Sca-cooks] Is this a wine myth?

[Nick Sasso]

-----Original Message-----
From: sca-cooks-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org
[mailto:sca-cooks-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org]On Behalf Of Phil Troy /
G. Tacitus Adamantius
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 11:24 AM
To: Cooks within the SCA
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Is this a wine myth?



On Apr 25, 2007, at 11:06 AM, Gretchen Beck wrote:

>
>
> --On Wednesday, April 25, 2007 7:38 AM -0700 Anne-Marie Rousseau
> <dailleurs at liripipe.com> wrote:
>
>> 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 ;).
>
> and 4. Many red wines are aged in oak casks. It's not a factor in
> spoilage,
> it adds desired tannens to the wine.

and 5: sulfites aren't necessarily added as a preservative; they
occur naturally in most wines. > > > >>

And 6:  Sulfites are added to wine very often to stop fermentation and kill
off active yeast activity.  This is a sort of 'preservation' that keeps the
wine stable rather than continuing fermentation that could eventually pop
the cork.  It allows more immediate, and economincal, bottling than holding
for longer periods and allowing the yeast to settle out naturally . . . or
using some artificial flocculant.

As for keeping it from going 'off', sanitized equipment and containers will
be quite adequate if bottling technique is sound.  I had been bottling mead
and wine for years, and had bottles go 5 years in bottle without any sign of
spoilage.  Few made it that long, or longer before being drunk.  I had a
brewing/vinting companion open 10 year old bottles with nary a sign of
spoilage . . . a little old and not at its peak, but not spoiled by any
means.