On May 17, 4:21*pm, cwdjrxyz > wrote:
> On May 16, 4:01*pm, ViLco > wrote:
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> > 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.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Great read! Thanks for the information.