NABOKOVList,
I referred Mr. Powelstock's comment about concentrated wine to my friend, the wine expert and international bon vivant David Celmer. He has gone beyond the wine query to consider the color question at large. His credentials for the color question comes from having spent several years around the Mediterranean, from Sicily, Crete, Southern Italy around to the North African side,
The key reaction of winemaking is alcoholic fermentation, the conversion of sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide by yeast. The maximum amount of alcohol attained through alcoholic fermentation is about 15% because the yeast cells are killed by high alcohol concentration. The maximum alcohol content can be determined by multiplying 0.55 times the percent sugar initially present in the grape juice before fermentation. For example, if 24% sugar is initially present, about 13% (0.55 x 24) alcohol will be realized. Most still wines (i.e., table wines) contain 12 to 14% alcohol.
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Aromatised wine
It is made of grapes or from grape juice (and their mix) to which water is added (maximum 15 %). They are aromatised by natural aromatic substances or by admissible aromatic extracts, aromatic herbs or spices. It is also possible to use admissible flavour additives. Sucrose, grape juice or condensed grape juice are used as sweeteners. Natural spirit is used for alcoholising, in such a way that the actual content of alcohol in the final product would be between the minimum of 14.5 % and maximum of 22 % of the volume.
So, maybe it's possible that a 22% wine could be achieved ... and then it MIGHT be cut a bit with water. Certainly plausible.
As for coloration, I doubt that "blue" would be at the end: the sky is far too prominent an event, not to mention the larger seas and oceans, feathers of birds, perhaps eye color, salt-water fish, certain plants ...
As for the "red" of the sea, I'm far more inclined to believe that it's the natural effect of oceans and salt water, ie., the Mediterranean: there's a species of plankton or microbe or something which, somewhat regularly, occurs: the sea turns quite red, fishing becomes abominable, there's a slight smell: I saw it while living on the Pacific Ocean near Acapulco in '82: the Mexicans have an expression for it which translates into "The ocean is bleeding" ie., having its menstrual period. It lasts a week or ten days, then fades.
d.
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From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum on behalf of Donald B. Johnson
Reply To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Sunday, May 8, 2005 9:55 AM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Fwd: RE: Nabokov & a color question
If I recall correctly, the Greeks used a form of highly concentrated wine,
which was mixed with water before drinking. Thus it might indeed have been
very, very dark.
David
(Powelstock)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
> [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of Donald B. Johnson
> Sent: Saturday, May 07, 2005 9:29 PM
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Fwd: Nabokov & a color question
>
> Please forgive this question re Homer. Where else should I have asked?
>
> Jansy wrote: ". . . The homeric "purpureum" might not
> necessarily refer to a "wine-red sea" but to the absence of a
> word for blue. . ."
>
> Was there no word for blue when Homer wrote? I have heard
> that blue is the last color to be named in every language,
> but have heard no definite reason why this is so. What about
> Athena's glaucous eyes, which Andrew Lang translated as gray
> eyes and which somebody interpreted, in a program about
> Ulysses, as eyes of the most brilliant blue that television
> could produce?
> Was the sea wine-red because there was no word for blue?
> (I've not seen the Mediterranean, but I've seen red wine and
> it's hard to imagine any sea that color or any shade of
> "wine-dark". Maybe unfermented juice of purple or black
> grapes? Or maybe on rare occasions, as during an unusual
> sunset? Or maybe I don't party often enough.)
>
> Mary Krimmel
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
----- End forwarded message -----