In the world of fine wine and in the world of herbal medicine there exists a drink called ratafia. Local versions of ratafia can vary, but it is generally an infusion of fruits and sugar into brandy. Today, ratafias are made in France and Spain. Americans, particularly folks in Louisiana, also made their own version of the infusion.
There is great diversity in wine press design and use across space and throughout time. The most primitive forms of pressing, by foot for example, are still in use today. Some technological innovations improved grape juice yield throughout history. Yet assuming that more efficient presses made older methods obsolete ignores the truth. Wine is a marriage of both tradition and technology.
Humans have been hunting rhinoceros for their horns for a long time. It turns out, we wanted to drink out of the horn. Cultures from China to Spain, India to Ethiopia, have all carved cups out of rhino horn for its medicinal properties. These cups were luxury items fit for emperors and kings.
The pokal is a piece of occasional glassware. While we may discredit it as just a glass for pilsners today, this variety of cup was traditionally used for communal drinking. Besides drinking, this cup was repurposed as a trophy, particularly in the DFB-Pokal football tournament. The pokal exhibits cultural attributes of both community and competition.
Both the ancient Greeks and Romans shared a hankering for chilled wine. In the absence of refrigeration, these civilized drinkers resorted to snow. Snow was collected during the winter, stored in pits, and eventually plopped into wine. Many different kinds of tools developed to help the ancients chill their wines such as the psykter and the colum nivarium. The Romans liked their wine hot too.
The Columbian biological exchange transformed the living world. Just as sicknesses were passed between Europeans and indigenous Amerindians, the grape vines of the New World passed diseases to the Old World. These diseases, including powdery mildew, downy mildew, and phylloxera vastatrix, would decimate European vineyards and change the future of viticulture forever.
The monteith was a multifunctional piece that accompanied wine drinking. Its distinguishing purpose was to cool wine glasses which were rested in its bowl and held firm by their feet at its scalloped rim. The rim could be removed and the silver basin became a punch bowl. The basin could also be used as a rinse for communal wine glasses. Strangely enough, they were also used for baptism.
Hemlock contains Coniine, Methyl-coniine, and Succus conii. The toxins block signals in the nervous system which lead to the cessation of breathing and consequently suffocation. The poison will also lead to salivation, twitching, pupil dilation, and an increased heart rate which eventually decreases to, you guessed it, 0 beats per minute. No one in Ancient Greece had a chance against such a poison, very few have a chance today.
While the Greeks were not necessarily drinking to get drunk, they still had their deal of fun and revelry when it came to wine. Much like the Greeks of college campuses today, they were known to play several games which revolved around alcohol. These games, to varying degrees, involved wine.
During the war, the burgeoning international trade of the late 19th and early 20th century dissipated to the point that many nations had to look internally for their basic needs. Yeast, an all important ingredient in the bread and beer that western civilization relies on, was a focal point of this supply chain disruption. The story of yeast in World War I was everywhere a story of culinary ingenuity and homegrown innovation.
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