In other times, when there was not as much purchasing power and when the historic social situation was truly a tough one, when the "infernal" heat of summer reached spain and, above all, the central part of the peninsula, as the saying goes, when it used to be nine months of winter and three months of hell, the times when the taverns of the toledo of the 12th century and continuing so right through to even the 20th century would be the ones to serve wine, and as mentioned above, always under the "control" of the authorities, first of the ecclesiastic authorities who dispossessed the muslim owners of their properties and then by the municipal or town hall authorities, who under their "rules" would indicate which goods could be traded and which could not.
In that concerning the wine that was consumed in the city of Toledo in the summer during those times and in view of the difficult refrigeration systems and remoteness of the mountains to bring in snow or ice, wine was inevitably consumed at "room temperature", or in the best of cases ideas had to be invented to store certain products in caves or in the lower parts of the taverns or inns in order to somehow be able to drink the wine at a relatively cooler temperature.
Thus with the arrival of the summer heat, the wines would undergo changes that gave rise to rather disagreeable flavours given the fact that wine has live substances in it, therefore, in order to drink wine in those times they had to resort to a sort of "by-product", such as for example what we now understand to be "sangría", which was none other than the product resulting from a combination of wines under evolution, with pieces of fruit and a certain amount of honey (or sugar) that would macerate thus making the taste more pleasant, or less "rancid", sometimes even including water in the mixture to refresh it. In other areas of Spain this beverage that has now been industrialized used to be called "zurra" or "cuerva".
Vermouths" are the great "derivate" obtained from wines that were truly going to be lost, and to these wines, which were normally white wine, vegetable substances would be added, these ranging from barks to aromatic herbs that would macerate along with the wine, even adding a touch of extra alcohol that would in some way assure that the wine would not sour any further; thus the herbs would contribute with a somewhat bitter, if pleasant flavor.
It is perhaps possible that in times long past in the taverns of the city of Toledo drinking wine during the rigors of summer was anything but easy, and yet I believe that even more wine than now was consumed, even warm wine, and nowadays we still drink wine or other "wines" in the summertime, as used to be, although the truth of the matter is that in other times wine was actually for the summer. “A glass of Samos, right at midday, under the scorching sun (...) is almost a sacred experience" (...) From Adriano's Memories. Marguerite Yourcenar.
