Cock Ale? Ahem.

Reading the words “Cock Ale” while finding myself in Portland recently led to a string of unintentional associations. Oregon. Craft beer. Lumberjacks. Wow, who knew? Alas, cock ale has nothing to do with Oregon or its (no doubt sexy) men. It’s literal. Cock ale is beer made with rooster meat. As reported by Gastro Obscura, cock ale was once a British mainstay and many a pub’s name is a tribute to it: The Famous Cock, The Cock and Bottle, and so on. Much appreciated in the 1600s for its medicinal properties, cock ale was made (often by women) by immersing a rooster in a batch of boiling ale along with raisins, dates, nutmeg, and Sherry. Cock ale’s medicinal and restorative properties were legend. Besides purportedly curing tuberculosis, it was considered an early form of Viagra. So: cock ale to the rescue for what ails you. Think of it as craft beer meets chicken soup. And if that doesn’t work, there’s always a cocktail.

What does the term “English acidity” refer to?

A. The high acidity in sparkling wines from southern England

B. The relatively low acidity in some Champagne wines that were originally made for the British market

C. The artificial flavor of wines that have been manually acidified with tartaric acid in order to boost their low natural acidity

D. It’s a euphemism for wines that are very high in alcohol which masks the natural acidity in the wine, causing that acidity to seem almost nonexistent

England’s sparkling wine producers commonly describe their wines as having “English acidity,” by which they mean—a lot of it. Many English sparklers clock in at 8 to 9 grams of acidity per liter; Champagne by comparison often comes in at 5 to 6 grams. The best English sparkling wines, as a result, are racy, nervy, starched, crisp and have a nice “bite.” By the way, the meteoric rise of a small but significant sparkling wine industry in England has been one of the 21^st century’s most unlikely if inspiring surprises. If you haven’t yet tried a sparkling wine from southern England (where the soils are an extension of the limestone soils found in Champagne), you must. The wines are fantastic. My favorites include Gusbourne, Nyetimber, and Digby—all available in the U.S.

First Wine in the New World

As an important wine region, Mexico may seem unlikely. Yet this is where the history of wine in the Americas began. Indeed, the first winery in the New World—Casa Madero–was established in 1597 in the… Continue reading

Cock Ale? Ahem.

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