Q&A: Diluting Wine with Water
Diluting Wine with Water
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I asked the following question two days ago. Did you intentionally not answer, or did you miss it?
Hello Rabbi. In the words of the Sages, it is written that a cup of blessing (Kiddush, Grace after Meals, Havdalah, the four cups) should be diluted with water, and the medieval authorities qualify this and say that this Jewish law was stated specifically in the time of the Sages, “because their wine was very strong and was not fit for drinking without water” — Rashi on Berakhot 50b. And in accordance with Rashi, the Rema ruled this way (Orach Chayim 183:2).
I did not understand how there could be a change in the alcohol percentage of wine. Chemically speaking, as far as I know, the maximum alcohol percentage is about 14%. How did wine in the time of the Sages reach such a high alcohol percentage, to the point that according to Rava it should be diluted with three parts water (Bava Batra 96b)?
Answer
For some reason I didn’t see the question.
I’m not knowledgeable about wines. But according to your view, how are there different alcohol percentages in different wines today?
Discussion on Answer
The maximum alcohol percentage from fermentation of sugars (glucose) is 16%, since yeast cannot survive in a liquid containing more than 16% alcohol. To get a drink with a higher alcohol content, you have to distill it. See here:
https://www.lilalodrinks.co.il/%D7%9E%D7%92%D7%96%D7%99%D7%9F-%D7%90%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%94%D7%95%D7%9C-1/%D7%90%D7%99%D7%9A-%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%99%D7%A6%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%90%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%94%D7%95%D7%9C
If the question is how one gets to a lower alcohol percentage, that can happen for various reasons, such as the liquid (grape juice) having contained little sugar to begin with, the fermentation stopping midway, dilution of the drink with another drink, and so on. See here:
In any case, if in reality it is not possible to produce wine with a higher alcohol content than today, how can the words of the halakhic decisors be understood?
Rashi probably didn’t understand wine. There is an excellent article by Professor Zohar Amar on the topic of diluting wine, arguing that there is no difference between our wine and theirs.
French, and didn’t understand wine?
Rashi was a winemaker by profession.
Nadav Shnerb has a post about this:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=271911897867359&id=100051456511332
Zohar Amar indeed argues that there is no difference between our wine and theirs, but he agrees that there was a difference between their wine and Rashi’s wine.
Rashi was not a winemaker. No solid proof for that has been found anywhere. Chaim Soloveitchik, a scholar of Jewish law, noted in an article from 1978 that the soil in Troyes, in northeastern France — the area where Rashi lived — is not suitable for growing vines. And there are further proofs, which I don’t remember.
It seems very likely that Rashi was indeed a vintner, and there are at least two proofs for this, despite Soloveitchik’s article:
1) Sefer Ha-Orah (part 2, 108): “Since they would draw from his barrels to sell to a gentile, he would not drink from it,” meaning that Rashi was stringent not to drink from barrels that were intended to be sold to a gentile.
2) In Responsa of the Sages of France and Lorraine (84), he says that he is “busy storing the wine cellars,” meaning that he was very busy with the grape harvest for wine.
What Soloveitchik says about the soil in Troyes is simply not correct. Around the city of Troyes there are several well-known wineries. A quarter of the famous Champagne wine is produced in the agricultural region around the city.
That isn’t natural; they add alcohol to it.