Historic used of wines

Historic used of wines
In many cultures people associated intoxicating beverages with wisdom. Early Persians discussed all matters of important twice: once when they were sober and once when they were drunk.

Saxons in ancient England opened their council meetings by passing around a large, stone mug of beer.

Greeks held their famous symposiums (philosophical discussions) during hours of after dinner drinking.

In fact, the world symposium means “drinking together.” As the Roman historian Pliny summed it up. ‘In vino veritas” (In wine there is truth).

Alcoholic beverages often in combination with herbs have been used for centuries as medicines and tonics. Indeed, herbs and alcohol were among the few ways of treating or preventing disease until about a century ago.

But probably the most important historic used of alcoholic beverages was also simplest as food and drink.

Bread and ale, or bread and wine were the staples of any meal for an ordinary person, with the drink considered food.

For centuries these hearty beverages provided up to half the calories needed for a day’s heavy labor. In addition, they were considered the only liquids fit to drink, with good reason.

Household water was commonly polluted. Milk could cause “milk sickness” (tuberculosis). But beer, ale and wine were disease free, tasty and thirst quenching, crucial qualities in societies that preserved food with salt and washed it down with a diet of starches.

Both wines and grapevines were imported from France to the New World in the 1700s. As US Minister to France Thomas Jefferson was one of the primary supporters of the fledgling winemaking industry and tries (passionately but unsuccessfully( to grow his own grapes at Monticello.

By the early 1900s about 1,700 wineries dotted the United States and they were mostly small, family owned businesses.

Wine was till considered an effective beverage until the 1800s, when Italian immigrants came to the United States with their home winemaking skills and a hospitable culture that accepted wine as a simple, everyday part of mealtimes and celebrations.

Many of today’s best-known California winemakers, with names like Gallo and Mondavi, are descendents of these immigrants families.

Today the world’s largest wine museum is located in Brines, a town in the Rioja region of Spain, about 180 miles northeast of Madrid.
Historic used of wines