Peppercorn Demotion
TASTING NOTES: “Dark cherry, blackberry and plum, with accents of licorice, wild herbs and black pepper. Ripe and supple, yet bright on its feet; Barbera’s mouthwatering acidity cuts through the fruit and carries a lively, savory finish.” (AbV 14.5%)
VARIETALS: 100% Barbera
BARRELS: Stainless steel.
PAIRS WITH: N/A
THAT REMINDS ME OF: Black pepper, the last accent in the tasting note.
When Alaric the Visigoth besieged Rome in 408, the ransom he named for lifting the siege included 5,000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, and 3,000 pounds of pepper. Read that again: pepper made the list alongside gold and silver, as a line item in a negotiation over the fate of the Roman Empire. The Romans, to their credit, did not say “we have a whole jar of that at home.” They paid it, or at least negotiated it down, and the ancient historian Zosimus wrote the whole thing up.
The Dutch still have an adjective for this, peperduur, literally “pepper-expensive,” which means outrageously priced. Meanwhile English went the opposite direction and gave us the “peppercorn rent,” a legal term for rent so tiny it’s basically a formality, a single peppercorn a year, handed over to make a contract binding. So at some point pepper went from “we’ll spare your city for this” to “technically a payment, please don’t make it weird.” I want to know who was in charge of that demotion, and whether they got a raise in cinnamon.
