Discovery of 3,600 year old Cannanite royal wine cellar

[BernardSmith]

Fascinating archaeological discoveries, and the evidence for the various additives in the wines (cinnamon, honey, cedar oil, terebinth resin, juniper, amongst others) to help preserve the liquor from deteriorating.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0106406

From another article about the same discovery it looks like one of the lead archaeologists is planning to try to "accurately" recreate the wines using a cultivar of a very "similar" wild grape that still grows locally in that area but he warns that the flavors of these wines will be very different from wines people are used to drinking...

 

[bkisel]

I chuckled at the next to last sentence in the article, especially the last word... "These additives suggest a sophisticated understanding of the botanical landscape and the pharmacopeic skills necessary to produce a complex beverage that balanced preservation, palatability, and psychoactivity."

Has anyone here on WMT tried tweaks intending to add psychoactivity to their wine? Hum, I guess adding extra sugar to the primary might serve to accomplish that end.

So are we here on this forum really just a bunch of psychos?

 

[tanddc]

I feel like activities such as wine making help us to get in touch with our collective past. I find it interesting that we as humans have all sorts of hobbies/activities that do that. Hunting, wine and beer making, camping and even the campfire are all examples of this. This weekend I think I will hunt for a good campsite and drink some wine by the fire in honor of this.

 

[codeman]

I've considered adding juniper but haven't because I wasn't sure if it would have a gin flavor.

 

[JohnT]

I chuckled at the next to last sentence in the article, especially the last word... "These additives suggest a sophisticated understanding of the botanical landscape and the pharmacopeic skills necessary to produce a complex beverage that balanced preservation, palatability, and psychoactivity."

Has anyone here on WMT tried tweaks intending to add psychoactivity to their wine? Hum, I guess adding extra sugar to the primary might serve to accomplish that end.

So are we here on this forum really just a bunch of psychos?

Perhaps they added a little something of the "Magic" variety????

 

[BernardSmith]

I suspect that fermentation was itself considered "magical". Think about it: you eat grapes or bread or honey and they taste good but nothing happens. You add liquid and with your "magic" stick (unbeknownst to you or your clan , it is covered in yeast) you stir the stuff and quite soon after drinking it that stuff makes you feel euphoric, increases your sexual drive and removes inhibitions and prevents you walking and talking like an adult. I don't know anything about many of the additives the paper discusses but , for example, Fraoch, traditional Scottish beer made with heather rather than regular hops, may have contained a psychotropic fungus, called fogg (sic) , but other additives used in gruit likely often played with your brain - wormwood, St John's Wort, yarrow, mugwort. These days we add hops to beer but the effect of hops is not mind expanding as much as it is supposed to result in what we might refer to as er... brewers ... er .. droop. http://www.gaianstudies.org/articles6.htm. which may indeed have been one important reason that the Church advocated the use of hops and the trashing of gruit herbs.

 

[NoSnob]

Awhile back, Winemaking Magazine reviewed a 2003 book by an expert in the field of ancient wine studies. Patrick McGovern (U Penn) is cited in your attached article. He wrote Ancient Wine; the Search for the Origins of Viniculture (Princeton Press, 365 pages). As a molecular archeologist, McGovern summarizes in non-technical language findings over the last 5,000 years. I recommend the book for anyone looking for an overview of what is known about wine and early cultures.

NS