curved blade of the knife used to harvest grape bunches, or to the shape of the bunch s t e m Grapple and crumpet are related words New Wines and New Containers Early modern times brought the invention of several wonderful variants on plain fermented grape juice, and important improvements in wine storage Sometime before 1600, Spanish winemakers found that they could both stabilize and give a new character to wines by fortifying them with brandy; the result was sherry Around 1650, Hungarian winemakers managed to make deliciously concentrated and very sweet Tokaji wine from grapes infected by an otherwise destructive fungus, which came to be known as the “noble rot.” This was the forerunner of French Sauternes and similar sweet German wines At about the same time, English importers of white wine from the Champagne region east of Paris discovered that they could make the wine delightfully bubbly by transferring it from barrel to bottles before it had finished fermenting And a few decades later, the English developed port in the effort to stabilize strong red wines during their sea journey from Portugal The shippers added distilled alcohol to the wines to prevent spoilage, and thus discovered the pleasures of fortified sweet red wines Bottles and Corks The 17th and 18th centuries brought two major innovations that once again made it possible to age wines for many years, a possibility that had disappeared when the impermeable amphora was replaced by wood barrels These momentous developments were slim bottles and cork stoppers! The English discovery of sparkling Champagne depended on the fact that they had begun plugging bottle necks with compressible gas-tight cork instead of cloth, and that they had especially strong bottles that could withstand the inner ... distilled alcohol to the wines to prevent spoilage, and thus discovered the pleasures of fortified sweet red wines Bottles and Corks The 17th and 18th centuries brought two major innovations that once again made it possible to age wines for many years,... the impermeable amphora was replaced by wood barrels These momentous developments were slim bottles and cork stoppers! The English discovery of sparkling Champagne depended on the fact that they had begun plugging bottle... fermenting And a few decades later, the English developed port in the effort to stabilize strong red wines during their sea journey from Portugal The shippers added distilled alcohol to the wines to prevent