What is the wine drunk in? Well, the answer we all expect is in the glass, and yes. It is one of the correct answers, but it has not always been like this and throughout history wine has been drunk in many “vessels”
The need to drink wine in containers
We know that the cavemen used the skulls of any animal or the shells to drink water. But it is assumed that the wine appeared later. Taking into account that wine has been made for thousands of years and that pottery has also been made, it is more than likely that wine began to be drunk in ceramic vesselsalthough some maintain that it was removed from where it fermented with its own leaves of the vine that were used to drink.
Of course, if we think of a plate, the wine would fall and the most natural thing to do would be to create what we know today as a bowl. But, to bring it into bowls from where it’s made to where it’s eaten or drunk, you’d have to come up with something. That something was the wineskins or skins. The wineskins were animal skins, tanned and sewn that were used to transport wine to where the vessels were, from the vessels to the jugs and from the jugs to the bowls. But it is suspected that along the way a part dedicated to tasting was lost, to ensure that it was in clear conditions. In some cultures, the empty animal horns they were also used for drinking.
The first glasses of wine
Everything points to that the Phoenicians who began to work with glass were the ones who made the first cupalthough others maintain that o the Romans or the Greeks already used them made of metal or noble stoneslike the Chinese who made them out of jade.
The curious thing is that the cup as such, with the foot, stem and chalice, does not appear until the 16th century, the above, were footed bowls. But I have to say that it is difficult to put a date and origin to all this.
The wine that was drunk in taverns
In addition, there are more things to drink wine. For example, the crystal glass of a lifetime called flatBesides of zurito either tiny. Here the theme was a little more “drink” long in certain taverns. But, the taverns contained a wonderful gadget and that I love to defend at all costs such as the pochard.
There is pochard variants (which is made of glass) that are made of ceramic as if it were a jug. And ceramic there is too jugs that serve both to serve and to drink directly from them according to their shape or finish.
Ceramics are still present today, in fact, in Galicia, for example, it is still possible to find the “cuncas“, small white ceramic bowls, and people continue to drink from them to perpetuate their use.
we couldn’t leave the boot apart. A reduced derivation of the wineskins and that must continue to be used so as not to lose this wonderful tradition.
Today, the plastiche metalhe paper or the cardboard they serve to drink our precious wine. Some think that, if it is not in a proper glass, the wine is tainted. It is indisputable that it is best enjoyed in a good glass, but if throughout history we have drunk anything, now, in theory, we can continue doing so, right?
javier field
Sommelier and wine writer
