Is This Bottle Corked__ The Secret Life of Wine - Kathleen Burk [56]
Also, of course, the pleasures of the table, like all such delights, are as much enjoyed in anticipation as in reality. And we have to admit that, as a temptation to sensual speculation, An Omelette and a Bottle of Stout just somehow doesn’t work.
How about a glass of fermented grape must?
ACCORDING TO THE European Union definition, “fermented grape must,” no matter how unattractive it sounds, is wine. Grape must is what you get by crushing grapes; the word must derives from the Latin adjective mustus, meaning “fresh” or “new” (that is, the juice before fermenting it to make wine). The problem is that the English word musty, which is not derived from the Latin (it is probably derived from moist), means “moldy.”
So long as the label says wine and doesn’t refer to must, no one is going to be put off drinking the liquid in the bottle. However, those who choose to make very low-alcohol wines have a problem:
EU regulations. One Italian winemaker, by stopping the fermentation of the natural grape sugars long before they are all used up, produces an interesting sweet red wine with only 5 percent alcohol. Under the regulations, he’s not allowed to call it wine, but he is allowed to use the word must. Therefore, he labels his wine mosto parzialmente fermentato, or “partially fermented must.” Perhaps it sounds better in Italian.
Shall we have a glass of raisin juice?
THE CAREFUL READER of “Yes, but what exactly is wine?” will have noted that, according to European Union regulations, wine must be made from fresh grapes, which are defined as “fruit of the vine … ripe or even slightly raisined.” This could be slightly confusing, since raisins in French just refers to grapes, while in English a raisin is a dried grape.
The method of drying grapes before crushing them to produce the juice or must that is fermented to make wine was practiced by the ancient Hittites and by the Greeks in the time of Homer. (The Hittites, who had a remarkable empire from about the seventeenth to the thirteenth century BC in what is now central Turkey, have regrettably faded from the group memory, unlike the Greeks. The first written diplomatic treaty that survives, which is inscribed on gold and which is an agreement to carve up Syria, was agreed between the Hittites and the Egyptians. Uriah the Hittite has a walk-on part in the Bible: coveting Uriah’s wife, King David sent Uriah into battle and certain death.)
Nowadays, the three best-known wines made from grapes that have been dried are all Italian: Vin Santo from Tuscany, and Amarone and Recioto della Valpolicella from Veneto. The effect of the drying is to concentrate the natural sugars (glucose and fructose) before the fermentation is begun, which gives greater sweetness and/or alcoholic strength to the finished wine.
Amarone is a dry red wine that used to be prized by some drinkers for its high alcohol content, exceeding 15 percent (which is, unfortunately, not so unusual nowadays). Recioto della Valpolicella is a sweet red wine, notable for going very well with chocolate desserts.
Ceremonial: will you take wine?
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to ascertain whether it was George Bernard Shaw or Oscar Wilde who first observed that Britain and America are two countries separated by a common language. Wilde uses the phrase in The Canterville Ghost, while a 1951 dictionary of quotations attributes something similar to Shaw, but without giving a specific reference.
But it’s true, and also true that the two countries are separated by common customs. Take, for example, the oddly stilted but rather charming custom of “taking wine.” We don’t refer here to bringing a bottle of something nice along to a friend’s house for dinner, but to the formal business conducted at Masonic guest nights,