Application of wine in medicine

Drinks play a significant role in the history and cultural traditions of any people. From the earliest stages of its development, no people, no human community can do without a drink, each of which has its own unique and beautiful history of appearance and usage. As soon as primitive man realized the crucial importance of water and liquids of all kinds to ensure normal life activity, he simultaneously had a feeling of deep respect for water and water sources.

Later, in ancient times and in the ancient civilizations of the East, Egypt, Babylon, Ancient China and Ancient India, this primitive cult gradually evolved into something more - into universal and nationwide worship of deified water. Soon many nations had various cultic drinks, because God-fearing people tried in every way to propitiate the gods, sacrificing them not just water, collected near from the source, but something more tasty and fragrant.

The priests and ministers of the temple cult were mainly involved in the invention of new beverages, which were direct intermediaries between the people and the gods. Thanks to the priests, people opened the possibility of processing many liquids in a liquid with completely different properties, taste qualities and so-called "side effects".Gradually, these drinks at all came out of the temple walls and began to be used for any significant and solemn occasions, and not only in honor of local deities.

All ancient cult drinks were in one way or another connected with the natural habitat of a particular people and with the peculiarities of its "profiling" economic activity, be it gathering, beating, hunting, fishing, and also a sedentary or nomadic way of life. So, in the East and the Mediterranean, grape was grown from ancient times, so the cult drink of the peoples inhabiting this territory was wine. In the Eastern Slavs, juices of various berries, birch sap, and honey of wild bees were considered raw materials for making cultic drinks. It is from this raw material that Russian traditional alcoholic drinks were made.

With the adoption of Christianity in Russia, cult pagan drinks were replaced by Byzantine red wine, which was considered "the blood of Jesus Christ."

The history of winemaking has almost the same number of years as the oldest occupation of mankind - agriculture, and the more accurate age of the wine is proved by excavations in the places of the oldest settlements. The first written source in which this divine drink is mentioned is the book of Genesis, according to which, after a worldwide flood, Noah, having just landed on land, first planted a vineyard. It is well known that even in Ancient Mesopotamia grape wine was made for a whole millennium before this mention in the book of Genesis. Historians suggest that wine first appeared in the area of ​​location of modern Middle East countries, and only then spread further thanks to the mariners, who transported various cargoes to other countries.

Travelers and merchants from Asia Minor somehow got to the southern coasts of France and Spain, where they brought grape wine, which became very popular among the locals. This victorious procession of grape wine in Europe took place long before our era.

Soon this drink, carried by ubiquitous seafarers, spread almost all over the world. And there is nothing surprising in that in every religion and beliefs of ancient ancestors there must necessarily be a character directly connected with this drink, which is recognized as one of the most ancient. In the ancient Greek mythology of this "wine" god and handsome man was called Dionysus, in ancient Rome it is a mischievous and libertine Bacchus, and in ancient Egypt - a small god of grapevine Shai.

Noteworthy is the fact that in all traditional beliefs of each people there was a certain holiday associated with the god of grape wine, which was revered and appeased in every way, he was given expensive gifts and sacrificed sacrifices. During this holiday all the people ate wine in huge quantities, had fun, sang and danced, and therefore these gods were often equated with the gods of merriment and joy, a carefree pastime.

If you go a little deeper into Greek mythology, you can find out who Dionysus really was. This Greek god is one of the youngest on the divine Olympus, and he was not recognized by God right away. This was the name of a man who went to wander through different states and teach people how to grow grapes, make from him a wonderful and very pleasant drink. And each time Dionysus said that He is a messenger of the gods sent down to earth to teach people to plant grapes and make from him this divine drink, the secret of which belonged only to the gods. Dionysus was a handsome and well-mannered young man, dressed in expensive clothes, and he knew how to work miracles.

Once he was kidnapped by pirates who pozarilis.na rich clothes. They decided that Dionysus was the son of a noble Greek merchant. They decided to sell it on the slave market and get a lot of money for it. But each time they tried to tie him together, the bonds themselves fell from his body and he again fell free. The pirates were perplexed and decided that somebody was joking with them, and when they started looking for Dionysus' accomplice on their ship, they saw that a fragrant dark liquid was pouring on the deck, which turned out to be grape wine.

At the same moment the ship was transformed beyond recognition: masts and tackles were escaped with vines with juicy and large leaves, between which began to appear bright and beautiful flowers, gradually turned into glistening grapes under the sun. White sails filled with a warm wind, and the ship looked like a huge floating vineyard, all strewn with beautiful and fragrant berries, as if they absorbed all the sunshine.

Pirates for a moment were stunned and began to jump overboard, fleeing from unknown witchcraft, and Dionysus turned all of them into dolphins, the descendants of which are still escorting ships in the hope of finding the one on which their ancestors sailed, and again accepting the human form. They even try to say something to the sailors in their dolphin language, but no one understands them - so the god of wine Dionysus ordered.

Bacchus, or Bacchus, or Liber, is the Roman god of grape wine and the patron of all vineyards. He had a completely different character than Dionysus, and he was famous for his other qualities. Bacchus was an incorrigible merry fellow and was very fond of wandering around forests and meadows in a noisy company, drinking grape wine and organizing merry holidays, games and theater performances.

In ancient Egypt, the situation was different: the priests themselves, the ministers of the divine cult, could not determine who exactly to thank for the appearance of grapes - the gods of the fertile land on which it grows, or the gods of water that feeds the vine. In the end, a kind of symbiosis( a joint form of existence) of the gods of fertility and water appeared, which was named Shai.

Compared to Dionysus and Bacchus, Shai was an angel with a calm disposition and a good heart, and therefore he was not satisfied with violent feasts and orgies in his honor. In Ancient Egypt, only wealthy people could be winemakers, and as a result Shai began to be considered not only the little god of the vine, but also a god symbolizing prosperity and wealth, abundance and complete contentment.

How did our distant ancestors learn to make wine and maintain its specific time, so that ordinary juice as a result of fermentation acquired completely new properties and became a completely different drink with new taste qualities?

It is known that in ancient times the wine was kept for a long time before use - from 15 to 20 years. And it was stored in special vessels - amphoras, which were sealed and buried deep into the earth. The Romans came up with a more perfect way to clog vessels with wine - the amphora plugged up the cork, and topped it with wax, which completely protected the wine from contact with the air. As

plugs, a wooden plug was used, which was poured with olive oil to prevent air from entering the vessel. A little later, the Gauls thought of storing and transporting grape wine in wooden barrels, which was very convenient.

Radical political changes and cataclysms in the life of a particular country or empire greatly affect all aspects of her life, including the quality of wine. This is what happened after the collapse of the great and huge Roman Empire, since the barbarians were not going to waste precious time cultivating vineyards and waiting until the grape juice turned into a real grape wine.

As a result of this negligent attitude, the notion of wine aging has disappeared from people's lives for a very long period of time. Varvara quite satisfied with the smelly and intoxicating grapes, which did not require much time or special effort, for it was possible simply to dump the collected grapes into a vat, squeeze out the juice and allow it to stand a little in an unclosed wooden barrel. Instead of real wine, which since ancient times was considered a drink of the gods, people consumed "sour", which had little in common with wine and was practically not maintained, since this liquid was drunk much before the next harvest.

Much later, several centuries later, some remarkable personalities once again decided to revive the ancient tradition of maintaining wine for a long time and, thanks to them, this tradition has flourished to this day. After a series of experiments with various additives to wine, it was found that when mixing wine in certain proportions with certain substances, it acquires an unmatched taste and aroma. Among such innovators was the now famous for the whole world monk Perignon, who made by his own recipe a particularly tasty and pleasant wine, which is produced according to the same recipe to this day and bears the name of its unforgettable author. The merits of this monk, who has always entered into the history of winemaking, are not exhausted by the invention of a new type of red wine: it turns out that he again decided to use

while storing the cork wine, thus reviving the tradition that was gone for centuries.

With the advent of glass bottles in winemaking, a furore occurred, because the red wine that was stored in them had a quality higher than the wine stored in ordinary barrels. And as Europeans settled around the world, their drinks gradually spread, and soon they knew about wine on both continents of America, as well as in Australia and New Zealand. In the middle of the XVI century.the descendants of the Spanish conquistadors, who once subdued the indigenous tribes of the Indians, began to grow on fertile soil grapes, from which soon began to make local red wine, which later spread not only in present-day Mexico, but also in Argentina, Chile and Peru. A little later, at the end of the XVIth century, impressive vineyards were planted in California and parts of Australia.

In Europe, the recognized leaders in the production of red wines, especially fortified, were considered to be the British, who especially "got a hand" in the production of port. This drink appeared in Britain in the middle of the XVII century.and became among the people one of the most popular. The impetus to the rapid development of winemaking in England was again the policy - because of constant wars with neighboring France, the tax on the excellent quality of French wines became excessive and simply beyond the means of even the English lords, especially since the French government decided to take extreme measures and stopexport their wines through the English Channel, or the Pas-de-Calais( in the French manner).

Therefore, the British had to drink their own red wine, but not very high quality. At first, the port seemed to the finicky English not very pleasant to the taste, but since negotiations with the enemy led nowhere, the war continued, and the population of the foggy Albion had no other choice but to be satisfied with what they were producing themselves.

The English decided to ferry wine from a distant and sunny Portugal, whose wines were much inferior in quality and taste to French ones, but they were better than English ones.

By the way, Portugal, which has been engaged in winemaking since about the 1st c. BC.e., called the country of wine. Here, only on slate soil and in a unique climate, the shares and the Douroux by hands of hereditary winemakers with their intuition and centuries of experience create a real work of art - Porto wine.

Porto and other varieties of Portuguese wines were transported by sea to the UK.To ensure that during a long sea voyage the Portuguese wines did not deteriorate and began to wander again, they began to add a small amount of strong brandy.

As a result, a qualitatively new drink was obtained, whose taste was very pleasant and liked the English. Soon, this wine, nicknamed port wine at the name of the Portuguese city of Port, from which the ships with wine returned to England, spread all over the world.

Thus, port of origin due to the constant military and trade conflicts that occurred between the eternal enemies - England and France. Accustomed to exquisite and delicate French wines, the British aristocrats at first "turned their nose" from the domestic product, and then from the imported Portuguese wine, but there was no other way out, and they also had to go first to the local alcohol product, and then to the world-famousport wine. Soon all the English were so accustomed to the specific taste of port, that besides him, they could no longer drink anything and began to consider this alcoholic beverage as a symbol of their fatherland along with the famous English oatmeal.

Similar fundamental changes took place in France at that time, which already began to be considered the world leader in the production of quality wines with a delicate taste. All French kings, without exception, were famous gourmets and connoisseurs of wines, and therefore one of the important state tasks was the annual production of an appropriate quantity of wine of certain varieties, as well as providing regular supplies to the court of His Majesty. It is known that Napoleon III showed special concern for the state of winemaking, which had a determining influence on the financial state of the winemaking power, who consulted with many famous winemakers and chemists on the issue of the annual spoilage of a huge quantity of wine. This task was given to Louis Pasteur, who after many experiments and experiments managed to prove that for the normal maturation of the highest quality wine still needs air, although earlier they believed that the better the bottle of young wine is corked, the better it will turn out.

Louis Pasteur proved that a small amount of air is simply necessary for the normal ripening of wine, and in a bottle of wine there must be a certain amount. Pasteur also determined that the quality, aroma and taste of wine are influenced by the barrel in which it is stored, as well as the subsequent process of decantation, during which the wine "breathes" and absorbs oxygen.

To our great joy, by the end of the XIX century.almost all ancient and even ancient traditions of winemaking, many of the subtleties of production and aging of this alcoholic beverage were revived and began to be actively used and developed by many winemakers of the time.

Winemakers who produce English port wine quickly became rich and became very influential and notable people, whose opinion was always taken into account when solving a particular issue. Gradually, people were so used to wine that they simply could not imagine their life without the everyday glass of port wine, high-quality red or rose wine, which, as noted a few centuries ago, gives strength and cleanses the blood.

The gradual evolution that took place in the field of winemaking, the appearance of qualitatively new techniques and innovations during the fermentation process and during the aging of the future wine led to the fact that over time the quality of the wines became better and better, and their diversity was simply amazing.

But at the end of the XIX century.there was a tragic event that directly affected the state of winemaking in European countries: a special grape aphid was brought from America, which affected the vines, so the grapes simply did not ripen. As a result, a wine crisis has matured and wine production has fallen sharply.

The solution was ingenious and simple: the American grape variety, which had a strong immunity to the imported for

razee, was crossed with one of the European varieties. As a result of this bold experiment, a new variety of grapes appeared, resistant to pests and having excellent taste characteristics, and it was from this crossed variety that the best European wines were subsequently produced.

The taste and quality of the red wine is influenced not only by the grape variety, but also by the growing conditions of the vine, as well as by soil and grooming. Best illustrates the long and painful process of cultivating the wine that is suitable for wine production following the old adage: "To become beautiful, the vine must suffer."

There is a whole science of wine called "enology".The very word comes from two Greek roots - oinos and logos, meaning "wine" and "doctrine" respectively. Oenology studies directly winemaking, which is defined as controlled by the winemaker process of turning grape juice into wine and its fermentation. And also enology pays attention to the subsequent care of the ready wine, its correct storage and competent use.

There are many rules for consuming wine, but the most important of them is not to overdo it, as we were told by wise and distant ancestors. Thus, Pythagoras himself said the following about the use of a sacred drink called wine: "As an old wine is not suitable for drinking much, so rough treatment is not suitable for interviews."And here is what another Greek philosopher Anaharsis said about this: "The vine brings three bunches: a bunch of pleasure, a bunch of intoxication and a bunch of disgust", so try not to lose count when you drink wine. In Russia there is such a proverb: "Without wine - one grief, with wine - the old one and the new two: both drunk and the head hurts."

With the history and character of this or that kind of wine, the shape of the bottle is closely connected, in which it should be kept in accordance with the old tradition. The well-known and familiar form of wine glass bottles has long become a classic and is considered traditional in many countries. There are many ways of unusual and original design of glass bottles, which is a distinctive and trademark of this or that wine and the whole region where it is produced. But, it turns out, the shape of the bottle fulfills not only an aesthetic role, but also contains important practical properties. For example, classical cylindrical bottles for wine are shaped so that wine can be stored in special cellars in a horizontal position, so that the cork absorbs moisture and thus prevents excess air from entering the bottles.

Classical noble French Burgundy wines have long been stored in bottles of a special form with sloping sides. Such bottles are much heavier and wider than ordinary ones, since they are made of thick-walled bottles. For red wine, which is made in the French province of Bordeaux, uses its own form of bottles - it's a narrow tall bottle of green glass. The port is also stored in high bottles, only they are slightly larger and have a more convex neck. Wines produced in Germany or in other countries, but from German grape varieties, it is customary to store in exquisite bottles of brown glass in the form of a flute. The more unusual and original the shape of the bottle, the more expensive and quality the wine poured into it.

There are wine bottles that are made in the form of ancient Greek amphorae or small flasks. Also there are wavy, curved forms of bottles or, conversely, squat and broad, with long, slightly curved necks. The best and quality red wine must necessarily be poured into a bottle of dark glass - green or brown, because this glass protects the drink from the harmful effects of light, which was noticed many centuries ago.

To finish the story of the history of red wine, let me quote from the Old Testament: "Wine is useful for human life if you drink it moderately. What kind of life without wine? It is created for people's joy. Wine, used on time and moderately, is a comfort to the heart and a consolation for the soul. "So let's follow this rule and enjoy the most ancient of alcoholic beverages, given to us by the gods!

It should be noted that the talk about the benefits and harms caused by wine seems to have begun immediately after it was born. People believed that wine at the same time and heals, and harms the mind of man. The disputes of the ancients have reached even to this day.

However, today many scientists are engaged in research of medicinal properties of wine. And the results of these studies suggest that treatment with wine is possible.

A few words about the history of wine consumption in Russia. Alcoholic drinks of the ancient Slavs were strong enough to cheer the heart and ignite the spirit, but they did not assume complete clouding of the mind.

All drinks produced in the territory of Ancient Russia were obtained by natural or artificial fermentation of local gifts of nature. Wines of finished production were imported from Byzantium and other countries of the Mediterranean. Mostly red wines were imported to Russia. Regardless of the variety, all wines up to the XIII century.were simply called "wine."

In a word, the history of wine in Russia starts from the moment it came to us from the Mediterranean countries. Mass production of own wine in Russia began in the 17th century, when in 1647 the "Gosudarev grape garden" was established on the Terek River, and in 1659 the government made a decision to cultivate grapes and create wineries in Astrakhan. The rapid development of domestic winemaking began after Russia joined the Crimea and Bessarabia.

The wine industry of Russia very soon came to the international level. So, in 1873 at the World Congress on winemaking Crimean wines were highly appreciated by experts. And at the next exhibition held in London, international judges noted the products of Crimean winemakers with several awards. Twenty years later the collection of Crimean wines was awarded by the judges of the World Wine Fair, held in the French city of Bordeaux, with a large silver medal.

And now let's look at the history of using the healing properties of wine, on what it was for humanity in different historical periods, how people began to use it for medicinal purposes.

The first information about the medicinal properties of wine appeared at a time when no one conducted scientific experiments and researches, when people received knowledge in any field only thanks to observations and generalizations of the facts obtained based on these observations.

The Greeks were the first to pay attention to the healing properties of wine. It was the scientists of ancient Greece who left a lot of notes in his writings that wine, without a doubt, has a number of useful properties for human health. The Greeks were the first to talk about the permissible doses of wine, specifically indicating how much is drunk for good, and what for harm. Prominent Greek physicians Hippocrates and Soran have devoted many pages of their works to the medicinal properties of wine, its effect on the body in this or that disease. They developed many recipes using varieties of white and red wine. In each recipe, the dosage was strictly specified. Often, the recommendations of doctors differed only by the time they took a certain amount of wine.

In the future, the anesthetic properties of the wine were also discovered, which allowed the doctors to use it during surgical interventions.

The traditions of wine-making have evolved over time. A lot of recipes for medicinal wines appeared in the Middle Ages. However, due to the fact that science at that time had not yet acquired knowledge by experience, many recipes for wine therapy had been lost. And in the future interest in wine treatment is not exhausted. Over time, the knowledge accumulated in this field has become the ground for the formation of various theories, the formation of the science of enoterapia, which means "wine therapy".It is known that by 1719 in Austrian pharmacology there were already more than 35 recipes of medicinal wines.

Currently, scientists generalize and process the achievements of different peoples in the field of wine treatment. Many recipes are carefully studied, tested, and then used in practice.