Researchers from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University were surprised to discover remnants of vanilla in 2,600-year-old wine jars unearthed in the City of David National Park in Yerushalayim.
The researchers were investigating two buildings destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE when they unearthed the eight jars. They date back to the reign of Tzikiyahu Hamelech, who ruled the kingdom of Yehuda when the Babylonians destroyed Yerushalayim and exiled the Jews.
In a recent study published in PLOS ONE, the scientists write that vanilla was not known to be available in the Middle East before Columbus sailed to the Americas in 1492.
Tel Aviv University doctoral student Ayala Amir, who conducted the research in the laboratories at the Weizmann Institute and Bar-Ilan University, said that the “vanilla markers were an unusual find.”
On the handles of some of the jars was a seal impression in the shape of a rosette, indicating that the jar and its contents were part of the royal administration of the kingdom of Yehuda. The number of jars indicate the economic importance of wine, the scientists said.
Ortal Chalaf and Joe Uziel, directors of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said that the jars will help reveal what people ate and drank prior to Yerushalayim’s destruction by Babylonia.
“The jars opened a window for us,” the scientists said. JNS
Kosher?
Oak barrels impart vanilla flavor, and obviously the molecules, to any liquid stored therein. Vanilla bean isn’t the only source of these molecules, as the human body also produces them as metabolites of dopamine and epinephrine.
Many unrelated plants produce exact or very similar compounds.
Conversely, in ancient times, oak wasn’t a usual medium of wine storage, and earthenware was, as far as we know from few surviving writings and from many recovered vessels. However, a wooden container could have decayed, or been repurposed as simple firewood, while clay jugs and amphorae remained as such.
So, basically, this finding proves that a multi-sourced molecule was found in an old jar.
I learned something new today.
@ Interesting
Yes, one of the basic metabolic tests for the body’s production and usage of catecholamines (dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine) is the VMA assay – vanillylmandelic acid. It’s a combination of the vanilla molecule, discussed earlier, and the mandelic moiety, which is the exact compound that gives the scent and flavor to almonds (mandeln), and your familiar amaretto. In matter of fact, people with adrenal tumors that produce norepinephrine in great excess, have their waste fluid with a strong scent of vanilla and almonds.
As for oak barrels, during the Prohibition, and ever since, many unscrupulous whiskey producers added caramel for color, and vanillin for flavor, to mask their very recently produced cheap moonshine as well-aged (in oak) premium whiskeys, since long maturation in charred oak provides the dark color and the subtle vanilla to the liquid. Today, many cheaper producers, who do not disguise their alcohol’s age, add toasted oak chips to enormous stainless steel vats, mimicking the color and flavor of a much more expensive distillate. You could read that on some Slivovitz bottles – aged for 3 months on oak chips.
True benefits of oak casks are the complexity of flavor through absorbing tannins in the oak, breakdown of methanol in the barrel, and slow degradation of fusel oils, which are major contributors to hangover headaches. Those processes could only be achieved with time, 12 years being the proven sweet spot. That is why a truly good whiskey, rum, cognac, or armagnac will be 12 years old, at the minimum. Bourbon, on the other hand, being produced in areas with very hot and long summers, achieves the same degree of maturation in about 7 years. That’s why your best bourbons will be 7+, rather than 12+ years old.
LeChaim!
Thanks for this information.
Nu, so what do you recommend I start with? Something smooth that won’t give me a stomach ache. I’ve tried numerous whiskey’s in order to be social. When someone has a yortzeit they usually put out Old Williamsburg and the like. Everything burns me when I drink it. I can’t seem to get used to whiskey and bourbon. I enjoy wine and have no problems with it.
Enjoy your wine.
I stay away from Old Williamsburg, as much as I keep as far away as possible from the current one 🙂