Pages

Friday, January 13, 2023

World's Oldest Wine

I really enjoy reading about the amazing longevity of wine. Bottled wine is a living entity and how long it lives speaks of it's composition, the specifics of the vintage and how carefully it was stored and handled.
Previously, I've blogged about:
1540 Steinwein Tasting, where Hugh Johnson tasted the 1540 Steinwein, along with a Rüdesheimer 1857 and the Schloss Johannisberger 1820 and of those three wines, the 1540 Steinwein was still alive!
I read about this nearly 1700 year old wine in IFLSCIENCE1 which had a link to the original story. The Historical Museum of the Palatinate in the western German city of Speyer houses the world's oldest bottle of wine found in a Roman grave near Speyer in 1867.
This bottle of wine has been on display in the museum for 100 years. Ludger Tekampe, heads the department responsible for storing the wine. The wine is in a 1.5-liter bottle adorned with dolphin-inspired handles and is estimated to date back to 325 CE. The longevity of the wine can partially be attributed to the fact that it was sealed with wax and not cork, which would have discomposed long ago. In addition, a layer of olive oil was put into the bottle to protect the wine and currently accounts for more of the volume in the bottle than wine. So far, no one has clamored to want to taste this wine. Everyone is afraid of handling it. Ludger Tekampe himself has only handled the bottle twice in the 25 years that he has been at the museum and opined that he wasn't sure what would happen to the wine if it became exposed to air. Still it is a remarkable discovery and just to have it on display is quite the nod to wine longevity and history.
References:
1. Rachel Funnell, "The World's Oldest Bottle Of Wine Might Actually Be Safe To Drink", IFLSCIENCE, Tue, 10 Jan 2023 12:32:46.
2. Museum scared to open ancient Roman wine, The Local, 9 Dec, 2011.

No comments:

Post a Comment