Wine Disease

In the early nineties of the xvii century the German city of Ulm and the surrounding area were struck by an unusual epidemic. I suffered severely ill animals, there have been cases of loss of consciousness and even death. City doctor Gokkel E., serviced at the same time two nearby monastery, drew attention to the fact that they stayed healthy monks who for various reasons, abstained from wine. From your wine (butlers, a local prince), he learned that the wine sweetening the special solution (sugar was still unknown). To obtain litharge (lead oxide white powder) was dissolved in wine, then evaporated to give a sweet liquid. Its something and added to the sour wine. Gokkel suggested – a disease caused by lead.

The use of lead compounds to "improve" wine dates back to ancient Rome. Romans specially prepared in a lead pot of grape juice flavored syrup effectively stopped the deterioration of not only wine, but fruit and olives. It took several centuries, until the damage of the Roman way of keeping wine became apparent. And with the advent of cheap cane sugar such practices are "better" wine all gone. In addition, we found a new food antibacterial – sulfites (which in our time are used in winemaking and in the manufacture of fruit juices). Nevertheless, the last high-profile cases of food lead poisoning occurred in 1994 in Hungary, where he found the party of powder, in which to enhance the red color added minium – a red oxide of lead.

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