The sacrifices I make for my research

 

So...it turns out that medieval style wines - clairet, specifically - are staging a tiny comeback*, so of course I bought some. For SCIENCE.

But before I just toss around my opinions (since wine is mostly about opinions) here are a few things to understand about wine in period:

• most folks were drinking white wines
• what reds there were sat kind of between a very dark rosé and a very light red, which is not typical of modern wines
• wine was made for drinking, not for aging, so it's not super complex

(As an aside: I need to understand better how people were drinking wine, though - was it only with meals? Was it for general pleasure? Was it purely to get f*&king hammered? Was it as impressive to have particular kinds available for your guests as it is today? Pity me, as I dive into this research. PITY ME.)

Anyway... Clairet is (according to what I've learned so far) the most common red wine style from the middle ages and renaissance, and it's now available commercially. I am much excite. My initial thoughts on the bottle I bought are as follows:

At first, it tasted very much like someone put vodka in the grape juice, which wasn't nasty but I also didn't want to drink very much of it. A bit of time to breathe improved things somewhat, but it still wasn't very compelling. Sticking it in the 'fridge for a few days, then drinking it alongside sausages from a 13th century Andalusian recipe improved it immensely.

So, my largely unscientific hypothesis (although I was using myself as a test subject, so it's more sciency than not, thanks) is that medieval wines need medieval food to bring it to life.

I'll try to find bottles from other wineries to compare with this first one I found, because I don't know if I'm 'meh' about it because of the style, or because of how this particular label handled it. PITY ME.

Also, OBVIOUSLY, I need to bring some to Crown and drink it with the feast to see if I can replicate my (not entirely dubious) findings. I'll also have some Trebbiano and Muscat - two period whites (according to my good friend Bartolomeo Scappi). For science, of course. There will also be cheese (don't fall over from shock).



* It seems that with climate change comes a shift from people wanting big, face-punchy reds from Burgundy and shifting toward lighter things served a bit cooler, so a few major wineries from the region are bringing back the lighter mediaeval style wines. I both love and hate this.