Adding water to wine: more than a sacrilege as many believe, it’s a long story!
The story of a new taste.
At the Roman era, wine was only used “pure” as a disinfectant, for wounds in battle and feet battered by shoes. The “Vinum” was low quality vinegar, especially for soldiers.
It was usually diluted with fresh or salt water, according to taste and season.
This helped to make the water more drinkable and created a very thirst-quenching drink.
A further confirmation came in 1500, during the Serenissima Empire, where the numerous workers of the Arsenale (arsenalotti) were offered a meal and a wine diluted with well water to continue working.
Today it continues to be a tradition in Friuli and Eastern Veneto. Low alcoholic and sour wines lovers asked the innkeepers to put a slice of lemon and a sparkling water spray: SPRITZEN! The current name was born at the end of the Venetian Empire and with the arrival of the habsburg soldiers (1915).
Today we find it with the addition of a third component, the Bitter that gave life to the famous and beloved cocktail. Easy and convivial!
