Diluting wine with water

I am reading "A Moveable Feast" by Hemingway, and in the book he mentions "cutting" wine with about one third water. I am not sure if he did this to save money because at the time he was rather "hard up," or he did it to improve the flavor. Is this a common practice in France or Paris. Seems I saw reference to this practice somewhere else. Are there certain wines that are best "cut" with water?

Thanks

Tom

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Tom or Mary
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During Roman times, it was considered to be the way wine should be consumed. While I may have missed some cultures' choices, re wine/water, I don't know the practice nowadays. Someone correct me, if I am wrong.

Hunt

Reply to
Hunt

Not just in Roman times. It's thought that in the ancient world, wine was rarely if ever drunk undiluted. Part of the reason for that is that in the early days of winemaking, uncontrolled fermentations often produced flawed wines. Moreover, storage was usually done in terra cotta containers sealed with pitch, lending a very pungent flavor to the wine (think Retsina, which many say is intended to invoke a memory of those ancient wines). Another reason was that wine was used to render water safe to drink, so "diluting" wine with water was done to create safe drinking water (and also done to a greater extent for service to children).

As far as I know, no culture practices that any more, though there are no doubt some people who prefer their wine diluted (and there are a few wines I've had that I'd have gladly cut with water) just as there are some misguided souls who choose to foul their single malts with water. De gustibus non disputandem est. :p

Mark Lipton

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Mark Lipton

Reply to
Ronin

The practice shows up all over Latin Europe in various ways and elsewhere too, I assume. Children routinely have been introduced to wine at dinner with water dilution, in modern times. Adding a little wine to "doubtful" water (as a germicide or whatever), whether or not effective, is a folk technique, ancient I suppose. The cultures that have drunk wines routinely for eons also tend not to hold it sacrosanct, so that you see casual mixing of (ordinary) wines not just with water, but in suitable circumstances with carbonated water, fruit juices, soft drinks, or other flavorings (cassis in a kir is famous).

Saintsbury in his classic anglophone beverage guide _Notes on a Cellar-Book_ treated the mixed beverages so customary in his native Britain, though some were fading in popularity when he wrote (1920). Sherry cobbler with lemon, sherry and seltzer, negus, flip, punch, cups, "bishop," "Cardinal," and "Pope" (mulled Port, Bordeaux, and Burgundy respectively -- though "No burgundy is really suitable for mulling, while to mull good burgundy is a capital crime"). Sainstbury grew up drinking beer, wine, and fortified wines, seemingly unafflicted by fashionable prejudices of what was "considered" good to drink, and went about trying all sorts of things and judging by how they tasted. He confesses adding sodium carbonate to a "modern" Marsala to touch up its pH and make it more agreeable. (His accounts of encountering outstanding cask ales, in country inns during walking holidays and so on, become poetic.)

I don't know where the original poster is located, but one of the several quirks of North American wine consumption is that the beverage tends to be put on a pedestal. Fussed over and served intacto. (Unless the family has been accustomed to wine for generations, which is the exception and not the rule.)

-- "Some years after I had invented it [a recipe for a `cup' or punch that was very popular with party guests] I gave the receipt in an article in the _Saturday Review,_ which used at that time to confide to me most books on eating and drinking. Before long it began to appear in such books themselves, as indeed I had altruistically expected, for they are almost inevitably compilations. But the gradation of titles was very amusing. The first borrower honestly quoted it as `Saturday Review Cup'; the second simply headed it `Another Cup.' But the third trumped both them and me, for with a noble audacity he (or she, as I think it was) called it `My Own Cup.' " -- Saintsbury. [The cookbook business, in a nutshell. Actually not just cookbooks. -- MH]

Reply to
Max Hauser

Certainly still current practice, although not connected to improving quality. We have brought good Bordeaux to Adele's relatives in Hungary, who much appreciated it, but pronounced it "too strong" and mixed with water.

I have seen village oldsters in Normandy water their wine, and then dunk sugary biscuits into it!

Watered wine is more typically given to children on special occasions. We've never gone in for this with ours. If there's a special bottle they get a taste, which they gargle spectacularly and pronounce some maxim like: "It's very grapey..." I've heard of people adding a sugar cube for kids, too, which is to my mind a bit bizarre.

-E

Reply to
Emery Davis

Here I am ;)

Here in Italy it is the rule, and in summer, when thirst arises, no wine is better than a glass of 50-50 lambrusco and water. Also, my father sometimes dips bread in his wine glass, be it water-cut or not: that's a typically old-fashioned habit.

Reply to
Vilco
Reply to
Michael Pronay

Thanks for the info.

Thinking about the dilution question, about the closest that I can come in popular culture(s) is the dilution of White Port with lemonade. OR, the wine- spritzer with wine mixed with carbonated water. Beyond those two cases, I'm waiting to hear reports of other dilutions.

Hunt

Reply to
Hunt

On to the dipping of pastries into wine - I've encountered many a glass of Vin Santo, accompanied by biscotti for dipping. Could this be traced to the " Communion" bread/wine combo, or maybe much before?

Hunt

Reply to
Hunt

snipped-for-privacy@hunt.com (Hunt) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news2.newsguy.com:

In that case, we could discuss various wine cocktails, like mimosas, bucks fizz(es?), sangrias, rossinis...but I'm stopping short of those that mix another alcohol, such as a black velvet... d...:)

Reply to
enoavidh

;-)

M.

Reply to
Michael Pronay

Riding on a boat up the Douro with George Sandeman, he had served what he called "Sandeman Splash": White Port, ice cubes & tonic water, in highball glasses. Quite refreshing long drink, btw.

M.

Reply to
Michael Pronay

In message , Hunt writes

I've often diluted red wine with water for a variety of reasons, though never with something really good or when I'm out for dinner somewhere special. It helps with some basic reds that have a sharpish edge to them.

Often I also dilute cranberry juice 50:50 with water, which lessens the dry sensation somewhat and tones down the sweetness.

Reply to
congokid

Sometimes wine gets diluted with other liquids. About 20 years ago I visited my sister for Thanksgiving and brought a very nice barolo with me. My brother in law's father was there and as the bottle was passed to him he had a taste and said the wine was too sour, so he took another 6 ounces and poured the wine & orange juice into his glass. Luckily he didn't want seconds. So while he was alive if I was going to visit my sister I brought a long a special bottle just for "Pop" usually Chateau LaSalle because he liked the shape of the bottle and now Murray.....

vell boyz and goils you know I left the old age jo>

Reply to
Joe "Beppe"Rosenberg

Michael Pronay wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@pronay.com:

White Port and Schweppes (take that Nordic Mist *thing* out of my sight, please) is also a very nice aperitif.

Best,

S.

Reply to
Santiago

That's more or less what we had on the boat.

Pardon my ignorance, but what's "Nordic Mist"? Googling brings out a remarkably high number of hispanic pages, btw.

M.

Reply to
Michael Pronay

Some wine I get tastes like it's made that way. :)

Reply to
beernuts

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