# How do modern wines stack up to those of the past?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-modern-wines-stack-up-to-those-of-the-past/623123>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** wine\
**Created:** [May 26, 2012, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-modern-wines-stack-up-to-those-of-the-past/623123 "2012-05-26T00:24:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2012, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-modern-wines-stack-up-to-those-of-the-past/623123/21 "2012-05-27T22:44:58Z")

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Meads sweetness is entirely dependent on how much honey you use. Based on my readings, everybody before modern times prefered wines and meads on the sickeningly sweet side.

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**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-modern-wines-stack-up-to-those-of-the-past/623123/22 "2012-05-28T07:40:31Z")

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> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> Also, in 1620, there were no corks. Bottles were stoppered with rags, so went bad pretty quickly.

But generally wine would be aged in barrels, not in expensive glass bottles.

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**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-modern-wines-stack-up-to-those-of-the-past/623123/23 "2012-05-28T08:18:18Z")

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> [@ralph124c](#):
>
> A related question-was mead more popular than wine, in Medieval Times?

Not more popular, given that there definitely existed a thriving trade in wine from the Med/France northwards. I’m not aware of a reciprocal mead trade Southwards.

> [@](#):
>
> Mead was easier to make (honey), and could be made in places where wine grapes could not be grown-like Scandinavia and Russia.  
> Was mead the in drink in the 8th-12th centuries?

It’s not really apt to compare mead with wine in those locales - the question to ask is if it was more popular than _ale_. Which varies from place to place, I think, but certainly mead was the in-drink in Scandiwegia. Not just for its alcoholic content, but also its [religious/](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mead_of_poetry)[cultural](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mead_hall)significance.

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**Author:** ![Mdcastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@Mdcastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mdcastle)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-modern-wines-stack-up-to-those-of-the-past/623123/24 "2012-11-24T02:58:43Z")

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Say you walk into a Roman bar for wine. Do you get a selection or reds, whites, varieties “this new batch of Gaul stuff is pretty good”, or just order “wine” made with whatever grapes were around.

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