Phyll wrote:
Yes, some folks do come
across snobbish with the swirling, sniffing and gurgling.

Especially people who start going on a long lecture on how tea making
is a spiritual experience that......(ahem)


Very different, indeed. We don't have to go that far back.
Trellising system is fairly new. Vines used to grow wildly off the
ground. Grapes didn't use to reach the level of ripeness that today
grapes are expected to. Every acre of vineyard didn't use to be
divided into subplots depending on sunshine, moisture, temperature,
soil, wine, etc. using a GPS tracking system and infrared satellite
images.

Right, and I'd imagine controlling of fermentation, bottling, etc etc
in the ways we do them today are all rather recent inventions. Most
importantly, the product that we drink today is probably not much like
the wine drunk by folks 300-400 years ago, never mind 2000. I know
this is true for beers, large or small breweries alike.

MarshalN
http://www.xanga.com/MarshalN