Need help with insane daughter

[RicRios]

She insists she wants to drink wine in wood cups.
I'm telling her she's insane.
She says that's the right way, has been like that for centuries.
I adamantly refuse.
I know there's plenty around: http://www.shofartallit.com/product_i...
but I still refuse.
Members of the board, what can I do?
If I say yes to this one, what will come next? Rhinoceros horn libation cups?
Any plausible reason why the wood cup would make the slightest sense?

[Phood]

An obscure allusion to Chuck Berry's song Rock and Roll Music, popularized by the Beatles, perhaps?

[RicRios]

LOL!

"Way down South they gave a jubilee
Them country folks they had a jamboree
They're drinkin' home - brew from a wooden cup
The folks dancin' got all shook up"

http://www.asklyrics.com/display/Chuc...

Who said beer?

[PattiCakes]

ROTFLMAO -- and chugging some wine FROM A BOX!!!!!

[vickib]

I chuckled at this post yesterday morning, thinking about my own insane children, who could come up with such things. AND THEN, took wine to a birthday dinner of a dear friend who proudly presented me with a WOODEN CHALICE for my Spatburgunder. I laughed, and drank out of this cup, which gave the wine a curious fuzziness. As soon as no one was looking, I switched the cup for a glass. The body of the wine was much improved. But it wasn't quite as...quaint.

[RicRios]

Then it's not just me ... You made my day, vickib!

[tmso]

Spatburgunder ... that must've been some glassblowing going into making that bottle!

Sorry, not trying to be a snot, just the mental image of a wine bottle shaped like this was too funny: http://www.rasanthaus.de/lehrer/sites...

(Without umlauts, it's Spaetburgunder, to finish explaining the joke ... you know, make sure it's good and dead)

[Whosyerkitty]

<<The usual drinking-vessel among the common people, especially at meals and drinking-bouts, was a mether (so called from the drink called mead), made of wood, with two or four handles: it circulated from hand to hand, each passing it to his neighbour after taking a drink<<

And then everybody got the plague and died.

How's about a wineskin? Wasn't that the original vessel?

[tmso]

I was thinking more the wine producing countries around the mediterranean, rather than Europe ... but I could be mistaken as to where this wooden box was used.

Either way, you're absolutely right: animal skin/stomach sack. Tell the daughter.

Oh, and sharing glasses didn't spread the plague, it was the sharing fleas thing that did it...

[vickib]

Oh, yes, forgive my umlaut omission! Glassblowing indeed!

[markabauman]

If she's drinking chardonnay and the goblets are made of oak, she's all set!

[PattiCakes]

Just take a swig out of the bottle first, then pour it into her wooden cup.

[FrankJBN]

"Any plausible reason why the wood cup would make the slightest sense?"

Yes. One can drink wine from a wood cup, which is indeed a plausible reason for drinking wine from one.

"If I say yes to this one, what will come next?"

The question is - what if you say no to this? Suppose she starts to believe the junk science produced by Riedel and insists that the lip of her Barolo glass have 1.36 more degrees of ascent than her Gattinara glass? Another "Intelligent Design" theory that isn't.

[tmso]

<< "Any plausible reason why the wood cup would make the slightest sense?"

Yes. One can drink wine from a wood cup, which is indeed a plausible reason for drinking wine from one. >>

I'll drink to that!

[Father Kitchen]

Hey, they age the stuff in wood, so why not? Besides, is it more insane to want to try something odd than to lose one's cool when someone close to us is acting odd. Aside from that, is the wooden cup left porous? I wouldn't want milk in a porous cup. And, Sam, there may not have been power lathes back then, but primitive lathes have been around about as long as bow drills.

[Sam Fujisaka]

But I still think (low) fired or unfired clay cups were the most ubiquitious across time and space. She should go out and make some mud cups first.

[tmso]

I don't know, there's an amazing variety of things people drink/drank out of (baskets come to mind). But certainly for wine-producing parts of the world, that'd have to be true.

That said, it's anything I'd worry about. I assume we're not talking 100€ bottles of wine here, so ... so what? I drink wine more often out of old mustard jars and juice glasses than anything else. I have nice stemware, but it only comes out when needed.

[Father Kitchen]

Ah, Sam. Pottery, as far as we know, was first made by the Jomo culture of Japan. I suspect you have it in your blood. I don't think you'd use unfired clay cups for wine. But I have a walnut Japanese beggar's bowl, and nothing could be more heart warmng to eat from. But I agree, a simple slip ware bowl would be my prior choice for drink. But if the lady wants to use wood, my recommendation would be a cup made from a joint of bamboo or a polished coconut shell.

[maria lorraine]

Ah, it's just a phase. Let her do it.

Or --

and this could be very fun, if you can arrange it. One day fifteen or so years ago,
a friend poured a very good wine into 10-12 different types of glasses. Big globe, tulip, Bordeaux, Burgundy, an array of Riedels, a cheap wine glass, a juice glass, no wooden cups, but you get the idea. It was my first big exposure to the profound difference a glass makes on the flavor of a wine.

I think it'd be great if your daughter could taste the flavor difference that a glass makes.
Line up all the glasses, including her wooden glass, and have her taste. Maybe even blindfold her, and hand her the glasses (#1-12), so she can really concentrate on smell and flavor, and
won't be swayed by the visuals. That may be enough.

[Bill Hunt]

RicRios,

Your only choice is to offer the wine to her in earthenware "tumblers," and then cut it with water. Make sure that the amphora was sealed with a resin stopper!

I see a lot of this with friends, who travel to some areas of Europe and insist on drinking their wines in "jelly jars," like they encountered in ______.

I have NEVER heard of the wooden cup thing, but have experienced similar. But hey! I'm a Riedel-geek, so what do I know?

Good luck, and let us know what the reasoning is for the wooden cups. I'm always ready to learn something new.

Hunt

[chrisinroch]

She should also store her raw meat at room temperature, just like in the good old days.

[fallingup]

Sake cups are wooden. But for wine?

[Midlife]

Sake being rice wine, I guess there actually is some contemporary pecedent for wood cups, though I'd probably give my own daughter Frodnesor's response (about the corncobs). But then, that's me, and I have a rather odd sense of humor my daugther she seems to have inherited from me.

[SteveG]

The good ones are lacquered, so they don't affect the flavor. They're also a very specific size, relating to the amount of rice that was standard to buy in a market for a serving for one person.

As a matter of hospitality, the sake must be poured until it overflows, otherwise the host or restaurant server is cheating you in the most ungracious way imaginable. Polite thanks are of course in order when the pouring ritual is complete. I love drink-related trivia :)

Sadly, I have only recieved this traditional service in one SF sushi restaurant.

[JonDough]

If you are ever in the SD area, Yu Me Ya in Encinitas does the traditional service.

[zin1953]

>>> Any plausible reason why the wood cup would make the slightest sense? <<<

In 2008? No.

[Sam Fujisaka]

A bronze goblet, a steer's horn, a bota bag, a clay vessel, a ceramic goblet, a pewter cup -- would all seem more likely candidates than a wood cup. There were no wood lathes back then.

[RicRios]

Prechristian Ireland:

http://www.libraryireland.com/SocialH...

"The usual drinking-vessel among the common people, especially at meals and drinking-bouts, was a mether (so called from the drink called mead), made of wood, with two or four handles: it circulated from hand to hand, each passing it to his neighbour after taking a drink. Many of these methers are preserved in museums, of which two are figured next page. People drank from the corners. A sort of hamper or vessel called a rusc [roosk] made of bark-strips on a wicker-work frame, was much used in farmhouses. "

[Frodnesor]

People also used to use corn cobs in lieu of toilet paper. We've made significant advances and there's often good reason to take advantage of them.

[gryphonskeeper]

ok, now that my beaujolias is all over the monitor.... That was the perfect response to the asinine reasoning that wine should only be drank in wood cups. :)

[Sam Fujisaka]

Sorry, Ric, I didn't know you're Irish. I was thinking about the Europeans who developed metalworking and Asians with ancient ceramics, the many who developed smiple clay vessels, and so on.

[RicRios]

Me? Irish?
Only link is (probably) the fact that they drink whisky now in Eastern Europe.

[Sam Fujisaka]

Fue un chiste. Biru lang. Just joking. What did your insane daughter think about you calling her "insane" here in public?

[RicRios]

She'll never find out.

[Bill Hunt]

Oh, I always consume my Mead from wooden cups, even if it's domestic Mead from Colorado!

I had not seen this reference, so now I know what the reason was.

Just tell her that "honey-wine" IS best consumed from wooden cups, but not grape wine. Maybe that will work.

Hunt

[wolfe]

Wikipedia, hardly the best authority, dates the origin of the lathe to 1300 BC.