I was watching Troy with somebody who happens to know a lot of useless things (his words, not mine). The Trojans and the Greeks were having a feast and he mentioned that they used to dilute their wine.
So we read into it. The natural max alcohol content in wine is 15%. Apparently, the Greeks used to dilute it up to 9:1, as in 9 parts water, 1 part wine!
I decided to try it with a 13% Montepulciano to get that full-bodied Mediterranean taste that opens sweet and ends earthy. We decanted it for an hour.
As a baseline, it was rich, sweet, with an astringent end-note.
At 1:1 (1 part water, 1 part wine), it was very sour with the astringent aftertaste.
At 2:1, it was sour, like pink grapefruit juice, the astringent aftertaste was lighter.
At 4:1, it was like lemon water with a mind astringent end-note. Sort of refreshing.
At 6:1, I couldn’t tell there was alcohol in it.
I don’t think I will be trying it with red again. I think white will come out more with the dilution.
