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Wine is often
referred to as the elixir of the gods, and indeed the making of it is one of
the oldest practices of man. Viticulture dates back to Neolithic times, about 8,000
years ago, and Georgia in the ancient world is usually considered the “cradle
of wine”. For a frame of reference, wine was being made thousands of years
before beer according to arenaflowers.com, or indeed the invention of the
wheel.
And since wine
flows through a good part of Dangerous Getaway, although not in the way you
might imagine, a few more wine tidbits might be in order.
It’s believed Roman
winemakers were the first to store their product in glass bottles, the oldest bottle
of wine unearthed so far dating back to 325 AD. It was also interesting to
learn that instead of corks, the Romans poured a thin layer of olive oil on top
of the wine after bottling, to preserve the contents within.
It also seems that
winemakers in every part of the world are only limited by their imagination,
with excellence being the universal standard. That’s likely why wine tasting is
so popular, and while I am not in any sense of the word a connoisseur … of
anything … it was fun to see what’s out there for those who might be looking
for a bit of an unusual sip. I found a few, and here are some of the most
unique offerings:
First up is lizard
wine, a potent drink produced in China. The gecko has been the traditional
choice of small carnivorous lizard to marinate in rice wine or whiskey for the
better part of a year, before this delicacy is ready for the table. Another
daring choice might be wine that’s made using snakes. Vietnamese snake wine is created
by steeping a snake (preferably venomous) in rice wine, but if that isn’t
tempting enough, why not consider snake bile wine? This is probably not for the
faint of heart, and amateur winemakers should be aware that for the main
ingredient, other than rice wine, you’ll have to extract the bile from a filleted
cobra’s gallbladder. Presentation is key too, and like lizard wine, snake wine also
has the reptile still inside the bottle.
For those who pale
at the thought of reptilian wine, I found something I’m guessing might be substantially
more inviting: wine made from chocolate and oranges. There’s also pumpkin wine
for those who enjoy adding a little spice to their life, and how could you go
wrong with wine made from handpicked rose petals? For tree lovers, how about a
sparkling wine made from the sap of the silver birch tree?
Ahhh, the
beautiful birch tree…. That’s the perfect segue to Dangerous Getaway and the intrigue
of Birch Shadow where, shall I say, wine is a polite enticement … well, sort of,
along with the inevitable wine cellar, because a large part of the wine
experience, is storing it. And really, it’s all about scale, a wine cellar
being functional for most, and a personal luxury for others.
Wine cellars date
back to antiquity, in fact the largest, oldest wine cellar found thus far in
the Near East, was unearthed during excavation by archeologists of a 3700-year-old
Canaanite palace in northern Israel. The wines in that cellar, both white and
red, were stored in fifty-litre clay jars. Of course the fermented drink had
long ago evaporated from those ancient vessels, but the residue still clinging to
the pottery suggested ingredients such as honey, mint, cinnamon bark and
juniper berries. There was also evidence of tartaric acid and syringic acid,
indicating it was indeed wine “consciously crafted and brewed according to a
sophisticated recipe.”
Just like the
drink itself, wine cellars can be a tribute to creativity. I did some digging to
find the most noteworthy. The first is Castello di Amorosa: Napa Valley Castle
Winery in Calistoga, California. It’s a 121,000 square foot winery housed in a
13th century medieval Tuscan-style castle. Ninety-five of the hundred
and seven rooms are used for winemaking, and there’s one heck of a wine cellar.
A VIP tour experience, which offers a private chef, a photographer, a barrel of
Cabernet Sauvignon, transportation by limo and a key to the castle, is
available for the price of $20,000 per
couple.
And did you know there
are wine cellars under the Brooklyn Bridge? The next time you cross over to the
Manhattan side, think of fine wines resting in the cool dark caverns beneath
the 60,000-ton granite entrances. Established in 1876 (seven years before the
official opening of the bridge to vehicle traffic), the Manhattan cellars have
been storing wine ever since, except during prohibition of course.
And how about the
largest wine cellar in the world? The Milestii Mici located in Maldova in
Eastern Europe (between Romania and Ukraine) held that honour in the 2005 Guinness
Book of World Records with 2,000,000 bottles in storage. But you’ll need your
car to view the thirty-four miles of underground galleries, complete with
streets named for each wine.
I even came across
a few haunted wine cellars, and those on record for having resident spirits are
all located in the United States. For instance at the Mansfield Winery in California’s
Napa Valley, “several odd and frightening events” have been recorded.
There are no
ghosts in Dangerous Getaway, friendly or otherwise, but let me ask you this,
would you want to be in an old wine cellar, in the dark … alone?
Sources: foodandwine.com;
science.org; travelchannel.com; npr.org; winemag.com and brightcellars.com
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