Medieval Wine Trivia

The cycle of the vineyards and man's enjoymentA major advance of medieval wine making was
of wine has continued throughout the ageswiththe discovery of sulphur by the alchemists.
some of these intriguing differences...This was now used to preserve the wine.
ONCE UPON A TIMEA PINCH OF THIS AND A PINCH OF THAT
Roman civilization was well versed in viticultureSpices were added to wine for the same reason
and wine making, but then thethey were added to food: for variety and
Barbariansdestroyed their vineyards and turnedtodisguise it's lackluster or bad flavor. Spiced wines
them into pastureland and cornfields. Luckily,were called Piments.
Benedictine and other monks kept the art ofWhen bad weather resulted in poor ripening of
viticulture alive at their monasteries. By thethe grapes, flavors and herbs were often addedto
12th century, viticulture was fully revived.the wine. The resulting beverage would then take
THEY WEREN'T SO FUSSYon the taste and character of theseadded
One of the major differences between today'singredients. If the poor crop yielded grapes low in
wine connoisseurs and medieval man wassugar, medieval man sometimesadded cooked
thatback then they weren't so concerned withgrape juice or honey to bring up the sugar levels
which exact vineyard a wine came from, butso the final alcohol contentwould increase.
ratherthe general area. The body of the wine wasTo clarify the wine, they used eggs, pine kernels,
more important than it's subtle flavors andaroma.peach stones or river pebbles. Honey
JUST BEING PRACTICALwassometimes added to maintain the proper
Wine was mostly the drink of the upper classescolor.
and rich merchants, while the lowerBecause their was so much unstable wine, many
classesgenerally drank beer, cider or mead.medieval vintners diligently tried to keeptheir
Also, in medieval times, much of the water wasbarrels and wine vessels as clean as possible.
tainted by sewage, so naturally, peoplepreferredVarious methods to clean them wereused,
to drink wine.including scouring with cold water, old wine or salt
OTHER USESwater. Sometimes they would thenfumigate them
Wine also served to relieve minor aches and pains.with rosemary or cedar wood.
In 1166, the vintages were so plentiful and thereMEANWHILE, OUT IN THE GRAPE FIELDS
was such an over production of wine, that inMedieval viticulture's drawbacks were partly due
Franconia (a part of what is now Germany), theyto slow technical progress in general duringthat
mixed wine with lime for use intime, and the cultivation of the vineyards was not
buildingconstruction.as advanced as it had been in Romantimes.
DRINK UP BEFORE IT GOES BADOne new development for the time was the use
In medieval times, the aging of wine wasn'tof the "low vineyard". Vines started to be tiedto
important. This was partly due to the factupright stakes and weren't allowed to be grown
thatmuch of the wine was too unstable to ageover 4 feet high.
well anyway, and if air hit it, it might turnFROM MALMSEY TO MERLOT
tovinegar. One way to combat this problem wasThe most famous of medieval wines was
to use a thin film covering of olive oil.Malmsey. This was a sweet wine made from
Othermethods included adding burnt salt, mixing ingrapesgrown primarily in Crete or Cyprus. We still
cloves, or plunging lighted torches dipped inpitchhave a form of Malmsey today which is basically
into the wine.asweet type of Madeira wine. But today's wine
Vintners and wine sellers often just mixed gooddrinkers generally prefer drier, more
wine in with bad, at least until the practicewascomplexwines than their medieval ancestors had
later forbidden. Others put cloves in wine to keepaccess to.
it from spoiling.