Monthly Snippet Info: Herbs N Wine - The History of Herbs & Wine

Part One

The History of Herbs & Wine

Well, we made it past the ending of the Mayan’s Calendar (Do you remember all that?).   So, lets celebrate with some wisdom from our ancients and their magic with herbs and wine!   I am not sure how far back herbs in wine go, but Patrick McGovern at the University of Pennsylvania is someone who might .   Patrick’s Website or here Wine and its Origins Its quite a history at that.  The Ethiopians, Egyptians, Romains, Greeks, Medieval Witches, Mayans Shamans, the Chinese, the Japanese and more have some sort of formula or use with herbs and wine in the same bottle. Some would use herbs to enhance the flavor of the wine, while others would use it for medicine.   Patrick's beliefs are, the origins of wine is from China.   I would have guess Egypt.  Then there’s our modern wine makers and their secret family formulas selling to the masses and we just know them as brands of wine in our grocery store.  I am not sure if we take for granted of the wine recipes from the past, but I do know from living over in Europe the wines from the older wineries taste cleaner and you can pick out the essences right away.

Have you ever heard of a Sommelier?   A Sommelier has a fascinating career in getting very intimate with wines and their essences, through the human sense.   The senses are used to combine wine with food.  If you would like to know more about Sommelier or even find one. This Texas group might help ya!  TEXSOM 

What is interesting now for me is, in Herbalism there’s something called “Herb Energetics”  which also uses human senses.  They use their senses to capture essences of the herbs. This would be one of the processes of traditional medicine making and whatever base they choose (water, oil, vinegar, wine, bourbon, whiskey, gin, etc. ) for the final steps of create formulas/herbal medicine blends to give to their clients.  The Herbalist in modern times blend most formulas to have a decent taste.  Something the client will even drink, smell or use.   But, since I am talking about Herbs N Wine....The question I have is, I wonder if that is also how the ancients came up with their wine recipes/formulas?  

If you would like to know more abut the history of Herb Energetics  go here Jeremy Ross   Two really groovy teachers that can help you with Herb Energetics with Kiva Rose  and in Austin, Texas there is Nichole Telkes  at Wildflower School of Botanical Medicine  .  My personal favorite is Rosalee de la Forêt! Here is a wonderful color wheel she has designed for Herbalist below and the link to get it! 

CLICK PHOTO TO COLOR WHEEL LINK

Click Here To View Patrick's Book










So...Lets  start with wine.  Now that we know the history of wine is quite long, lets speed up the time clock and come to modern times. Lets check  our group of wine makers around the world.  Do they actually make wine like the ancients or don’t they?  Wait!?!?...An  Herbalist uses the whole plant!  So, that means we would pay attention to everything that goes into wine in order to formulate herbs with it, doesn’t it?  How they grow the grapes?  Do they use Organic everything?  What is their process of making the wine?  Well...sometimes, but not all the time?  The Archeologists have said they have found medicinal herbs in ancient wine containers.  Why the herbs were in the containers is a mystery that could unfold a whole bunch of answers unless we have the person come back from the dead and flat out tell us.  So, it’s a theory for me, the scholars don’t have me totally convinced they know for sure tiz all.   Here is a sample list below of some of our oldest wine farms.

The oldest known winery:  

Some of the oldest working wineries (Samples Only)

Wine Estate Schloss Vollrads
Barone Ricasoli 
Wente Family Estates 
Warwick Estate
Tignanello 
Codorniu 
Chartreuse 
Bienvenue au Domaine de Ladoucette

The Next Generation (Samples Only)

Texas Wines 
California Wines 
Oregan Wines
Washington State Wines
Virgina Wines

 Will we know if any of the wineries of today follow the ancients ways of wine making? Well...considering the process is a family secret or if you have a chemist give you a chemical break down on each bottle of wine that is consumed. It might be a tad complex. 

Next is...What Grapes to Grow in Texas

Namaste
Indu

Special Note: Nothing said, done, typed or written is intended to diagnose, prescribe, cure or treat any illness and is not a substitute for a license physician. I provide educational information designed to help you and your personal journey to good health

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