On May 16, 4:01*pm, ViLco > wrote:
> Many times I happened to read about ancient wines as very strong, often
> as a kind of an escuxe for the fact they used to mix it with water and
> many other things, from honey to spices, snow and fruits.
> But I also know that proper vicification requires skills, techniques,
> knowledge and equipmente. Did the ancient greeks, romans and egiptians
> really made strong wines, or did they make wines with less than 10%
> alcol? They didn't use selected yeasts, they just let those on the skins
> do the work while praising to the gods ("spirits" comes from the general
> belief that it was some kind of spirits to transform must into wine).
> And the higienic conditions back then were horrible, just as the
> management of important variables like temperature, for example.
> I'm sure of one thing: the measurement of the alcol percentage in wine
> is too young to help in regards to ancient Athens, Rome or Thebes. Is
> there a way to discern if some of these ancient were really strong?
> Maybe also a simple textual account about someone who got drunk with a
> few sips? LOL

Ancient wines are known from back to a few centuries BC. Perhaps the
earliest were from China. Several years ago sealed bronze containers
of Chinese wine from a few centuries BC were found. I believe this may
have been described in Science or Nature journals a few years ago. I
do not recall if any of the wine was analyzed for alcohol content,
but, if not, it would be very easy to do so. Of course wine that had
been stored in metal for so long likely would taste very foul and
might be quite toxic depending on the metals used in the bronze and
the acid content of the wine. If I remember correctly, the old Chinese
wine might have been made from a variety of fruits, not just grapes.
Rich Egyptians often left containers of wine in the tombs, but so far
as I know, the seals of all of these were slightly imperfect, so that
all that remains in the containers now is dust.

If we turn to the period of a few hundred years on either side of the
bc/ad transition, there is much information about wines in Rome,
Greece, and a few other countries. So far as I know, these countries
did not distill alcohol then. Distillation was introduced by Arabs
several hundreds of years later, but likely before the time of a
certain Arab prophet. Thus fortified wines likely were unknown.
However many herbs and other natural products were known and widely
used in medicine. Some of these materials added to wine could have
produced a very intense effect, even death, if overdone.

If we consider everyday wines, some likely reached the alcohol content
of modern wines fermented using natural yeast, but many, if not most,
likely did not. Some of the poorer examples, apparently were mixed
with about anything that would make them more drinkable such as was
the case for "bathtub gin" during US prohibition. Such wines would not
last very long unless protected from air. Pine resin or other
materials added might extend the life of the wine a bit, and floating
oil on top of the wine would somewhat limit oxygen uptake from the
air.

But the rich Romans also had very expensive wines that were sometimes
aged for many decades. Very sweet wines were liked. There has been
speculation that botrytis was known, but so far as I know this is just
speculation because the text on which such speculation is based could
have various meanings. However there are many other methods for
increasing sugar content. A crude method is to boil down some grape
juice and add it to wine. Hopefully they did not use lead pots for
this that many Romans used then. Some of the grapes could have been
dried, as is still done for a few Italian wines. Twisting of stems has
been used to nearly cut off sap flow and allow the grapes to dry on
the vine, but I have not seen any reference to twisting for that era.
As for protecting the wine from oxidation, sealed ceramic containers
apparently worked fairly well. Some aged the wine under rather hot
conditions which likely produced a Madeira-like effect. In some warm
countries until very recent times, wine was aged in large sealed
containers buried underground which would produce lower temperatures,
but I do no recall reading about this for Roman or Greek wine.

The rich old Romans likely would have liked Tokaji essencia, so
consider how essencia is made. Tokaji Aszu and even Tokaji Aszu
Essencia has fairly high residual sugar as well as high alcohol, being
less rich to much richer than Yquem, for example. True Essencia, now
being made and sold again, uses only highly overripe grapes, usually
botrytis affected, which are piled up and only the small amount of
very concentrated juice that collects at the bottom of a container
without pressing is used. For top Essencia, even after several years
of fermentation the alcohol content may be as low as 2%, for example.
The essencia sometimes is fermented only in glass, and some ferment in
both glass and wood. The extreme sugar content kills the yeast before
the alcohol content can become very high. Because of the extreme sugar
content, essencia is very stable and will keep a very long time if
opened. For example, the Royal Tokaji Essencia 2000, according to the
card packed with it, has 2.0% alcohol, 21.4 gr/l acidity and 620 gr/l
of residual sugar. The very high acidity balances the extremely high
sugar content. There was some 2000 Essencia that exceeded 900 gr/l of
residual sugar and an example containing over 800 gr/l can actually be
bought from at least on specialist wine dealer in Europe for a very
high price - there were only a few dozen bottles of this 2000
Essencia. Such rich wine has the viscosity of motor oil or light
honey. The point is that if the Ancients used overripe grapes they
could have well noticed that they oozed juice that was extremely sweet
and saved it apart for sale to the very rich. I have no idea if they
did this, but it would take no modern high technology to do so.