HIST 3109 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Port Wine, Wine Law, Sherry
Document Summary
New fortified wines made by adding distilled alcohol to wine. Port and medeira became popular at this time. Port originally made in 17th to stabilize it for shipping. 3% alcohol per barrel of port early 1700s. Very brisitsh, many companies even now are english. Demand so high in 1700s that could not keep up: began counterfitting port. Instead of using real port wine from the porto region in portugal, would take others and add sugar, elder berries and spices to mimic flavours. When england discovered it was fake people stopped buying nearly as much and imports fell by. 50% in 30 years and price dropped significantly. Wine law appellation was created which means that name is reflectant of the place white it is made. This guarentees consumers that what you are paying for is real". 1789 england started to import huge amount of port, 6 bottles per capita. Port becomes measure of masculinity in england.