wein.plus
Attention
You are using an old browser that may not function as expected. <br><strong>For a better, safer browsing experience, please upgrade your browser.</strong>
Chrome
Firefox
Microsoft Edge
Safari
Opera

Log in Become a Member

Lexicon
The largest wine encyclopedia in the world with 26,076 Terms.
0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Flavouring

The addition of various aromatic substances to wine to improve its taste and/or appearance or to make it more durable is a practice that goes back thousands of years. Many of the ancient wines were flavoured. In ancient texts from Mesopotamia there are recipes with the addition of honey, spices, myrrh and also drugs. The Germanic tribes were already making mead (honey wine) before the turn of time. With the Greeks, resin was added, as is still common with retsina today, but also various spices such as absinthe, aniseed and pepper. With the Romans, spiced wines were very popular, for example piperatum (pepper wine). But they also used lead in the form of white lead or litharge to reduce the acidity and make the wine sweeter. Lead addition was also common in Europe well into the 18th century and correspondingly dangerous. In Stuttgart in 1708, several customers of the cooper Hans Jakob Erni died of lead poisoning, and the punishment is documented: "So, to well-deserved punishment, his head was cut off in the royal city. In other cases, people were content to make such offenders drink larger quantities of their own wine.

To read the full text, you must be a Premium Member of wein.plus. You are currently not logged in to wein.plus. Become a Premium Member or log in with your credentials .

Become a Premium Member of wein.plus

Voices of our members

Prof. Dr. Walter Kutscher

In the past, you needed a wealth of encyclopaedias and specialist literature to keep up to date in your vinophile professional life. Today, Wine lexicon from wein.plus is one of my best helpers and can rightly be called the "bible of wine knowledge".

Prof. Dr. Walter Kutscher
Lehrgangsleiter Sommelierausbildung WIFI-Wien

The world's largest Lexicon of wine terms.

26,076 Keywords · 46,829 Synonyms · 5,324 Translations · 31,411 Pronunciations · 186,809 Cross-references
made with ♥ by our author Norbert F. J. Tischelmayer. About the Lexicon

EVENTS NEAR YOU

To Online-Events
22.06.2023 - 25.06.2023 Bordeaux, France BORDEAUX CELEBRATES WINE 2023 Taste, share, savour and marvel!
03.04.2023 - 04.04.2023 Zaandam, Netherlands No and low alcohol platform Let’s experiment with no and low alcohol
15.05.2023 Rotterdam, Netherlands VDP GOES... ROTTERDAM The VDP brings unique and outstanding wines to Rotterdam.
14.04.2023 Rastede, Germany Wine, Food & Music Bogielicious are expected...
27.04.2023 Düsseldorf, Germany Wine shopping Düsseldorf Wine Tasting Tour in Düsseldorf
25.05.2023 Düsseldorf, Germany Wine shopping Düsseldorf Wine Tasting Tour in Düsseldorf
21.04.2023 Lüdinghausen, Germany Epicurean evening: Riesling King Riesling
28.04.2023 Lüdinghausen, Germany Good Spirits: Trendy Spirits Discover new things
24.03.2023 - 26.03.2023 Germany WineFair Bremen The wine enjoyment and shopping fair
23.06.2023 Düsseldorf, Germany Wine shopping Düsseldorf Wine Tasting Tour in Düsseldorf

PREMIUM PARTNERS: