Break out the Adams extract!

Evidence suggests ancient wine drinkers enjoyed vanilla-flavored wine

The Wine Curmudgeon has long wondered why so many wine drinkers want their chardonnay – or even more astounding, their pinot noir – to taste like vanilla.

Now we may have one reason why: Wine drinkers have, apparently, always liked vanilla in their wine.

Researchers excavating a 2,500-year-old site in a Jerusalem neighborhood found organic residues of vanilla, then an exotic spice, on wine jars. The Jerusalem Post reports that the archaeologists were surprised to find the residue, given how rare and expensive vanilla was at the time.

Does this mean they found the Old Testament version of this wine?

The story emphasizes that the wines were not vanilla-flavored from oak aging, which is mostly what imparts the flavor these days. Rather, the residue shows that the spice was actually added to the wine. In addition, the researchers think the wines were aimed at an upscale market; not only was vanilla expensive, but it likely came from as far away as India, making it far less common than it is today,

So why vanilla? The story doesn’t say, though we can assume several things:

• Ancient wines were likely unpalatable, at least to 21^st century tastes. Fermentation depended on wild yeast, so there was probably little consistency in flavor or quality.

• The wines were what one source I found called “robust” – so big and tannic? No one had yet figured out how to control those qualities — or to even think that they needed to be controlled.

• Adding seawater or sweetener (honey or grape juice must) to ancient wine was common, as was adding spices. The reasons are many, though I assume the most common was to make the wine taste better.

The other thing that I find fascinating about this? Given that vanilla was so rare and so expensive, was its use an ancient form of premiumization?