Would wine from back in ancient times and civilizations have been dogshit compared to a basic marketable wine produced by modern viniculture?
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I've had some wild beers, but I don't know if I've had wild wine. Sourdough is a good comparison, because those are the same wild yeasts you'd get for brewing that you'd get if you made your own starter.
If you like wild beer and regular wine, you'll probably enjoy wild wine too! Or at least, I do. I just wish it was more readily available near me, particularly since I am somewhat afraid of brewing it myself
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I think you should try it! Most of what I've done has been more for for r/prisonhooch than r/winemaking and it's all been ok to pretty darn good.
Get a hydrometer and some brewery wash and 2 jugs that fit an airlock and stopper. I've done almost all my fermenting in used juice jugs.
I never found it harder than making bread. There's no kneading, but I usually make a bigger mess transferring liquids, so it is messier. It's fun though, and very little hands on time. Make small batches and there's very little financial risk. Once you get the hang of it, then invest in some carboys and whatever other fancy things you desire.
If your worried about growing something unintended, do a few with purchased yeast so you can learn how the normal year reaction and the byproduct looks and smells at various stages so when you "go wild" you know what's normal. It does sometimes burp some foul gas depending on the strain of yeast. I forget what gas it is, but it's normal, some yeasts just have stinker gas.
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I think you should try it! Most of what I've done has been more for for r/prisonhooch than r/winemaking and it's all been ok to pretty darn good.
Get a hydrometer and some brewery wash and 2 jugs that fit an airlock and stopper. I've done almost all my fermenting in used juice jugs.
I never found it harder than making bread. There's no kneading, but I usually make a bigger mess transferring liquids, so it is messier. It's fun though, and very little hands on time. Make small batches and there's very little financial risk. Once you get the hang of it, then invest in some carboys and whatever other fancy things you desire.
If your worried about growing something unintended, do a few with purchased yeast so you can learn how the normal year reaction and the byproduct looks and smells at various stages so when you "go wild" you know what's normal. It does sometimes burp some foul gas depending on the strain of yeast. I forget what gas it is, but it's normal, some yeasts just have stinker gas.
Oh I've made plenty of beer (and fruit wine, and gin, and currently an attempt at bochet that is awaiting bottling)! It really is just the wild yeast I'm afraid of
I figure I could probably do enough reading and learning to make myself comfortable, but there are enough other things I want to make that I'm not prioritising it just now. I had a crack at a pomegranate and date wine over the winter that I particularly want to improve
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Oh, very cool! I've only done random wines, and I did distilling once. Pomegranate and date sounds really good!
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Oh, very cool! I've only done random wines, and I did distilling once. Pomegranate and date sounds really good!
The theory was to get the proportions right to replicate the pH, sugar content, and tannins close to grape must without having to add much else. Turns out, by chance, that on those three factors, pomegranate and dates are all roughly different from grapes in opposite directions and amounts to each other.
I live in Scotland, which is not exactly prime pomegranate and date territory, so they're both kinda expensive here and not great quality out of season. I did a trial run with pomgranate molasses to just see if I was on to something without spending as much money (or having to crack open and juice like twenty pomegranates)
If I figure out an actual good recipe I'll be sure to stick it on [email protected]
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"Fortified" means that liquor is added which acts as a preservative and it also stops further fermentation so you can have more sugar left in the wine. Oftentimes, herbs are added, too, which also acts a preservative.
In beer, IPAs are similar in that greater amounts of hops were added so it could survive the trip to India with less chance of spoiling.
Do you know when the first liquors were discovered or stumbled on? Did they have it back then in ancient times?
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Fun fact: Jacques Cousteau and his team once discovered a shipwreck with some intact jugs of 2000-year-old Roman wine. For whatever reason, they broke one open and drank some of it. They said it wasn't all that tasty at that point.
Except, after they had their party and were working on recovering the rest of the wreck, they realized that the intact one they'd found right at the beginning was the only one that had been intact. Literally the singular one. They searched extensively to try to find another, and couldn't.
Oops.
I dunno. Someone's gotta experience drinking the wine, might as well be the ones who found it
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I dunno. Someone's gotta experience drinking the wine, might as well be the ones who found it
I mean they could have had it analyzed, probably found out some pretty fascinating things about Roman wine, and then if they wanted to drink it after before it went bad, maybe they could just save some out when they were delivering it for study. Or they could have sold the thing to finance a whole other expedition probably.
I get it. You can't live your life just saving it all in the right file folders. At the same time...
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I dont know wat that meenz
It's a fortification
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Do you know when the first liquors were discovered or stumbled on? Did they have it back then in ancient times?
I think full modern-strength liquor is relatively new-ish (500-1000 years). I'm just thinking back to the meme of the wikipedia article on the "timeline of Irish inventions" that has the invention of whiskey and then a gap of 300 years before they invented anything else.
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Clay vessels, being porous, would alter the flavour and would harbour yeasties and other microorganisms.
There's a winery in Sonoma called the "Jacuzzi Family Vineyards" (yes, that Jacuzzi) that does fermenting in amphora jars for their Clarum. It is just about my favorite wine. Very light and minerally, perfect for a hot day. At $50/btl, its not cheap. But I like to set aside a bottle or two for special events.
If ancient wine is anything like that, they've got nothing to complain about.
Congratulations, you just sold two bottles of wine. Do I need to use a referral code?
Jokes aside this looks amazing. One of the best wines I've ever tasted is called TALEiA, by Castell d'Encus out of Spain. It is exactly as you describe — refreshing, light, with a mineral note because they age it part of the time in these ancient granite basins. It has a trembling newness with a brave young heart underneath, simply magical.
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Congratulations, you just sold two bottles of wine. Do I need to use a referral code?
Jokes aside this looks amazing. One of the best wines I've ever tasted is called TALEiA, by Castell d'Encus out of Spain. It is exactly as you describe — refreshing, light, with a mineral note because they age it part of the time in these ancient granite basins. It has a trembling newness with a brave young heart underneath, simply magical.
Congratulations, you just sold two bottles of wine. Do I need to use a referral code?
Damn. Should have considered negotiating that in advance.
One of the best wines I’ve ever tasted is called TALEiA, by Castell d’Encus out of Spain.
Turnabout is fair play. I suppose I should order a bottle or two myself.
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Go back in time and give an ancient king some boxed wine and be given 500 sheckles, 3 goats, and a concubine.
Or just take a 5kg bag of refined sugar to buy a whole ass estate with slaves
