Hi Shopgeezer!
Thank you for brightening my day. It's cold, raw and wet and I am scurrying to find a de-numbing
wine
. However, looking at my own collection of sweeteners there is initially honey and a host of good sweet wines which 'enrich the day' For me, there is always a good vintage port which is a sweet Portuguese wine fortified with alcohol and if you like a dryer wine like the competing Spanish ones like Tio Pepe, there is white port and now 'pink'( Don't know about the latter
). Again,, there is Muscatel and excellent with pork and chiches pois. From what I gather is the longer one leaves the grape the sugar content increases. Quite enervating pounding the grapes with athletes foot.
Of course, you are right about the amount of alcohol which was drunk in those days--- and now.
A great deal of water was undrinkable- and still is. Digressing, the London gin is a fine example and so is beer. Again, I do like the idea of 'sweet and sour ostrich' Marco polo DID get to China! Now was he born in Venice amongst all that ice cream or was it Korcula-- or have I got my dates wromg?
Speaking about dates, we had a little place overlooking the sea in Menorca which I bought for £7500- inflation they had been £450, the same price as a Mini. However my dear departed wife did want more vegetation around the place and bought a date palm for a ridiculous 1000 pesetas.
Siting it to get water in our absence was a problem and i her inimitable way hit on the septic tank. This would collect the night soil and the storm water in our absence and would be emptied by the 'gully gully man' and sprayed liberally on the island's tomatoes etc. It certainly DID grow. It also created a fine crop o dates. Say no more!
Diseases? Oh yes. I've mentioned malaria but there was a lot of other diseases and these are to be found damaging the bones. They had their share of Covid-55BC and a lot of things.
Lead poisoning really in endemic proportions was not found until the WW1 and subsequently.
It's all enough to persuade a person to drink- and see if the contents of this new bottle cause me to fall down without warning. It is becoming quite unpleasant-- and I don't know why.
All my mate and I are doing is trying to save our bit of what was Roaming Briton by re-cyclings as many bottles as we can. i supoose one should drink to that?
Your good health
Norman