Is This Bottle Corked__ The Secret Life of Wine - Kathleen Burk [6]
Apple wine, pear wine, bilberry wine, cherry wine, elderflower wine, ginger wine, coriander wine, plum wine: if it grows, if it produces sugar (or if it can have sugar added to it), someone, somewhere, will have produced wine from it, even if only once.
But why the unquestioned supremacy of real wine, by which we mean (siding with Dr. Johnson’s first definition and that of the EU) wine made from grapes?
It used to be a mystery. Why should grapes be superior to strawberries, peaches, or rhubarb? There seems inherently no reason—or there did not until 1998, when a Cornell scientist, Robert Kime, came up with what appears to be a very good reason.
It’s the other thing about wine that’s the problem. The alcohol.
Grape-based wines can be allowed to develop an alcohol content of up to 14.5 percent and still be considered excellent by many. But the aromatic compounds in other fruits and vegetables are less robust, and alcohol is, after all, a solvent. Allow the percentage of alcohol to rise to 11 percent, and the aromatics will be dissolved and evaporate literally overnight.
The answer? Halt fermentation at about 10.5 percent alcohol by refrigeration to 28°F.
And now we wish we had never repeated this information, lest it encourage anyone to make a Brussels sprout wine that captures the true, the unspeakable flavors of the things.
How did wine help Marduk become king of the Gods?
THE BABYLONIAN creation epic Enûma Elish tells how Marduk, “the bull calf of the sun” and a young but mighty storm god, vanquished and destroyed Tiamat, the great mother goddess of Sumer. Tiamat and her son and consort Kingu, an evil pair, were the sea dragons of Chaos. Marduk was inclined to indulge in pranks, such as putting the winds on a leash, and a number of the lesser gods grew resentful. They decided to ask Tiamat to destroy him. She in turn decided to make war on Marduk and on those gods who were her enemies and who supported him. She created eleven monsters and put Kingu at the head of her forces. Her enemies wanted her destroyed, but who was to lead their forces? She was so powerful that none wished to go into battle against her. In desperation Ea, the god of wisdom and father of Marduk, decided that his son had the best chance of defeating her. Therefore, he asked Marduk to fight her as the champion of her enemies. Marduk
opened his mouth, saying unto [Ea], “If I indeed, as your avenger,
Am to vanquish Tiamat and save your lives,
Set up the Assembly, proclaim supreme my destiny!”
In short, the assembly of the gods had to agree that if he won, he would be their chief forever.
This would be difficult: in general the gods would be loath to concede supreme power to any of their number, let alone to a young god. Ea decided that he should invite the gods who were the enemies of Tiamat to a banquet. He had his servants prepare mounds of pancakes, a favorite food of the Mesopotamian gods, and placed beside each of them a huge vessel brimming with a fragrant and delicious wine—or alcoholic beverage—made from dates. To encourage their drinking, he gave each god a tube through which he could drink his wine without needing to move. To encourage their relaxation, he had musicians play soft music on their pipes, and he brought into the hall many sheep, whose bleating further lulled the gods into restfulness. When the time came for the gods to vote on Marduk’s proposal, the entire assembly agreed to his terms.
Arming himself with bow and arrows, a bludgeon of thunder, and a flail of lightning, the young storm god marched against the ancient goddess. One by one he defeated her monsters, and after a terrible battle he destroyed her and imprisoned the monsters in the bowels of the earth. He then tore the body of Tiamat into two pieces. He flung one piece up into the air, which formed the firmament; the other piece became the foundation of the earth.
The losing gods were punished by being forced to serve the other gods, digging the earth and sowing the crops. They eventually rebelled, burning their baskets and spades. Marduk