The world’s oldest surviving wine

The dreamy Christmas market in Alsace, France attracts millions of tourists every year. Every Christmas season, the streets and alleys are filled with mulled wine made with cinnamon, cloves, orange peel and star anise. aroma. In fact, for wine culture lovers all over the world, Alsace has a bigger surprise worth exploring: the world’s oldest surviving and still drinkable wine is stored in the capital of Alsace – Strasse In the cellar of the workhouse in Strasbourg.

The Cave Historique des Hospices de Strasbourg has a long history and was established in 1395 by the Knights of the Hospital (Ordre des Hospitaliers). This magnificent vaulted wine cellar stores more than 50 active oak barrels, as well as several large oak barrels from the 16th, 18th and 19th centuries, the largest of which has a capacity of 26,080 liters and was made in 1881. It was exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900. These special oak barrels symbolize the historical status of wine in Alsace and are an invaluable cultural heritage.

Behind the fence door of the wine cellar, there is also a barrel of 1492 white wine with a capacity of 300 liters. It is said to be the oldest existing oak barrel wine in the world. Every season, the staff will ouillage this barrel of centuries-old white wine, that is, add extra wine from the top of the barrel to make up for the loss caused by evaporation. This careful handling re-energizes this old wine and preserves its rich aromas.

Over five centuries, this precious wine has only been tasted 3 times. The first was in 1576 to thank Zurich for its prompt aid to Strasbourg; the second was in 1718 to celebrate the rebuilding of Strasbourg’s workhouse after the fire; the third was In 1944, to celebrate General Philippe Leclerc’s successful liberation of Strasbourg in World War II.

In 1994, the French food safety regulations (DGCCRF) laboratory carried out sensory tests on this wine. The test results show that although this wine has a history of more than 500 years, it still presents a very beautiful, bright amber color, exudes a strong aroma, and maintains a good acidity. Reminiscent of vanilla, honey, wax, camphor, spices, hazelnuts and fruit liqueurs.

This 1492 white wine has an alcohol content of 9.4% abv. After many identifications and analyzes, nearly 50,000 components have been discovered and isolated from it. Philip Schmidt-Kopp, a professor at the Technical University of Munich Lin (Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin) believes that this is partly due to high levels of sulfur and nitrogen that give wine antibacterial and antioxidant activity. This is an ancient method of wine storage. The addition of new wine over hundreds of years does not seem to have denatured the molecules in the original wine in the slightest.

In order to prolong the life of the wine, the Strasbourg Hospice Cellars transferred the wine to new barrels in 2015, which was the third time in its history. This old white wine will continue to mature in the cellars of the Strasbourg Hospice, awaiting the next big day of uncorking.