AMERICAN WINE SOCIETY
A non-profit corporation

John Marshall Chapter


 
"Wine is a precious aphrodisiac, and its fumes have blighted many a mating"
 
-- Norman Douglas

 
 

While pouring my favorite beverage the other night I wondered about the glass bottles' evolutionary history. I read while I sipped, that wine was
first put into glass containers in the late 1600s. By the 1720s a cylindrical body with a neck became the shape of bottles because they could
be stacked to save space. Earlier containers were random shaped and couldn't stand on their own, so ancient clay vessels and crude glass
bottles were stood-up in beds of sand. Bottles laid on their side, called binning, also kept the corks wet and tight thus enhancing the shapes'
practicality. Buckle your seat belts, folks, this is where it gets good. By the 1730s aged wines of certain vintages were being appreciated. Bacchus
smiled on them for they had discovered that maturing some wines infused bouquet and taste complexities.
 

NEXT MEETING

Our next meeting is on Sunday, March 5th in the Parish Hall of Grace Episcopal Church, I think. If the parking lot isn't full of cars with wine
related license plates then we're at the Thompson House up the street. Meeting starts at 7:00 PM with social at 6:30, our new meeting times as per popular demand. Bob Dierker did mumble something about having to leave his home at 4 AM now to get there on time, but Bob's motto is: whites, reds, any place, any time.

In March we are staying on the Iberian Peninsula, moving east into northern Spain for reds. Yours' Truly is pouring this one. Chris, Dawn, and I are going to Spain before the meeting so come on out and hear our renditions of what Spanish viticulture and viniculture is doing today; and of course to taste some select examples.
 

SUMMARY OF THE FEBRUARY MEETING

Mr. Walt Rachele dazzled us with his usual panache at the February port tasting. Port has not until now been a strong suit of mine so prior to the
tasting I wanted to know a bit about its' history and learned some interesting things which augmented the lessons from Walt.

The name 'port' comes from the coastal town Oporto, or Porto today, from whence ports have been shipped for over three hundred years. History
credits two English brothers with the 'discovery' of port for the English market in 1678. Their search was instigated by trade wars between France
and England, which suspended the importation French wine. What they found up the Douro (meaning gold) River was a monastery with dark astringent red wines that were given the moniker 'blackstrap' in London. It is not known if this discovered wine was actually fortified or merely a heady complex red that the English went Cocopuffs over.

Another accounting records that adding brandy was not a standard practice until the 1850s. Reading on, I learned that in fact it is not traditional
brandy that is added to the wines to stop fermentation, but a grape distillate called 'aguardente' of around 78% alcohol, (78% not proof). The
wine makers (port makers just don't sound as sofistikated as wine makers) are not seeking a fruit identifiable brandy but wanted alcohol to stop
fermentation without adding aromas or flavors to compete with the port grapes' identity.

The English domination of the port trade solidified at the end of the 17th century when William III imposed punitive taxation on French wines and
entered into a treaty with Portugal which gave extremely favorable tariff advantages to Portuguese wines. That'll teach those French!

Walt presented us with exclusively 'colheita' style ports. Colheita means 'harvest' or 'crop' in Portuguese, thus in a wine application it means,
'vintage'. As applied to port a colheita is a tawny port from a single vintage with a minimum of seven years in oak and no maximum oak-time edict.

The favorites of the night were the '75 Barros and '83 Hutcheson, and rest assured that there were no losers. Walt included for our edification two
Portuguese houses, Barros and Romairz, amongst the Limeys to show the distinct difference in styles. Walt, Thanx - for opening your doors of
perception and your cellar.

Our Virginia wineries are gearing-up for the coming season with an increased incidents of events. Thanks, George for bringing us copies of the
2000 Festival and Tour Guide.

If any one knows some one who you would like to receive a copy of our newsletter, forward it on. Maybe they'll join our club.

See ya on the 5th !

Smile,

Fletcher