Wine: History--and Health--in a Glass

On foreign mountains may the sun refine
The grape's soft juice, and mellow it to wine.

A Letter from Italy, Joseph Addison (1703)

From the most rustic of table wines through to the rarest of vintages, from a bubbling, effervescent champagne to a mellow, warming port, wine is a very special drink indeed. Throughout many parts of the world it is the drink of choice for special occasions, for relaxing with a friend, or for sipping quietly with a good book. Not so potent as distilled liquors, nor so weak and potentially bloating as many beers, it is the alcoholic middle way. Moreover, in each glass resides a unique mixture of climate, time, place, experience and history. It is no wonder then that people can exhibit a passion for wine rarely seen in relation to other alcoholic beverages.

Throughout much of southern Europe, wine has been a common daily sustenance for thousands of years. It is well known that the Greeks and Romans were great wine drinkers, and archaeologists have uncovered clay tablets dating back to the 2nd millennium BC which describe the ritual offering of wine to the gods. Wine was more than just a drink, though. Dionysus, god of wine for both the Romans and the Greeks, also represented the sap and lifeblood of nature, and the symbolic link between wine and blood is one that persists today in some forms of Christianity.

Undoubtedly wine, and tastes too, have changed over the ages. The Greeks favoured their wine diluted with one to two parts water, as did their Hebrew neighbours, an unacceptable proposition to many drinkers in the 21st century. Whatever the preferences of the age, though, the basic production methods have remained much the same. There has been the inevitable modernisation, and in some parts of the world wine is now produced on an industrial scale. But there has also been a recent trend in the opposite direction. The traditional methods, proponents argue, produce a more individual and refined product.

David Henley / CPA

Australian Chardonnay.

The most widely used species of grape in wine production is Vitis vinifera, though within the species are myriad varieties. The variety of grape together with the amount of sun and the average temperature during the growing period all contribute to the quality of the fruit when it is fully ripened. The grapes are normally harvested when they reach maturity, traditionally by hand, but increasingly using a mechanical shaker. The harvest is then transported to the winery where the grapes are crushed. Again, the traditional scene of people trampling grapes in a large vat is now not so common, machinery being considered both more efficient and, dare one say, more hygienic.

If it is intended that a white wine be produced, the juice is next separated from the skins and seeds in a press, and the resulting must is treated to make it clear. If a red wine is desired, the solids remain in the must until after the next stage, fermentation.

It is during fermentation that the sugars in the must are converted to alcohol. It is normal for grape skins to be coated in naturally occurring bacteria, molds, and yeasts, some of which play an important part in the production of alcohols and the flavouring of the wine, others of which threaten to destroy the nascent drink. It is the wine producer's job to inhibit the destructive and encourage the beneficial. Sulphur dioxide is frequently used to suppress undesirable micro-organisms, while selected strains of yeast are cultivated in sterilized grape juice and added to the must to aid fermentation. The fermentation generally takes about a month, though sometimes up to ten weeks for special wines, and occurs under carefully controlled conditions.

After fermentation, the yeasty sediment is removed in a process known as racking. It is not unusual then for the young wine to undergo a secondary fermentation during which various flavourful by-products are formed. When this late fermentation is finished, the wine is clarified using finings, filters, centrifuges or refrigerators--any of numerous methods to make sure the wine will be just as clear as it ought.

The now clear wine is aged in oak casks, imparting a final complexity of flavour and character before bottling. Ageing, as any vintner will tell you, also continues after bottling, and the secret to enjoying a tremendous wine is knowing just when to drink it. In the best red wines, improvement can continue for up to twenty years after bottling, though a lesser wine would be undrinkable after such a long time.

David Henley / CPA

Australian wines.

The whole wine making process is open to almost infinite variation at each stage. It is this characteristic which accounts for the immense selection of wines available to the consumer and connoisseur alike. One can choose wines based on grape variety, on region, on vintage. Beyond these criteria, though, are the more unusual wines--sparkling wines and champagne, fortified wines such as madeira, port, muscatel and marsala. And then there is a whole subset of flavoured wines including vermouth made with herbs and spices, and aperitif wines such as Dubonnet and Campari, typically heavy and sweet but with the complementary bitterness of added quinine.

And perhaps, for once, a little indulgence in one of life's great pleasures may be no bad thing. Historical documents show that doctors in Ancient Egypt often prescribed wine to their patients. The Apostle Paul in his first letter to Timothy in the Christian New Testament exhorts him to 'Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomachs sake and thine own infirmities'. Lately, too, research seems to indicate that moderate wine consumption can actually be good for the health. Hopefully, modern science will vindicate the wisdom of the ancient world, and we shall all be able to pay our respects to Dionysus, looking forward to the next grape harvest.

This article was first published in CPA Media's "Across Cultures" series in Asiana Magazine.

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