DaleW wrote on Sat, 3 Apr 2010 13:08:49 -0700 (PDT):

> On Apr 2, 11:51 pm, Young Martle > wrote:
>> If there was a Last Supper, what would the wine have been
>> like?
>>
>> I apologize if this gets asked every year at this time. :-)

>No real idea. My guess is that it is likely to have been offdry and
>low alcohol, as I assume it was going off native yeasts, without temp
>control, etc.

Even high class Roman wines could not have been matured very well before
the invention of the cork and I doubt that the seder wine for a not very
wealthy bunch of Palestinians would have been very great.

I'm no expert on wine history but I do wonder how Roman wines really
tasted, even the Falernian they raved about. I'm told Roman taste in
wine was not very sophisticated and they liked to mix it with honey and
other things. Of course, they originally worried about drunkenness and
would dilute it with water. Didn't Cicero sneer that Cataline was very
self-indulgent in drinking wine mixed with less than 50% water?

--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not