So far as I know (my information is from Tannahill's *Food in History*) yer
average ancient wine was aged for all of about a week (maybe a month) before
consumption. The better wines were aged longer, but since they were stored in
porous containers (goatskins or pottery jars) they were usually pretty thick
(evaporation) if they had been aged anything like a typical time for one of
today's decent table wines. A 20-year-old wine had to be watered to be potable
at all.
However, grape juice, like any other liquid with sugar in it, starts to ferment
*immediately* and will probably be mildly intoxicating after one or two days of
room-temperature storage. Modern non-alcoholic (pasteurized) grape juice --
stored in the refrigerator or freezer! -- is the product of the 19th-Century
American "temperance" movement: tee-totaling Protestants, of whom Mr. Welch
was one, wanted a non-alcoholic communion beverage.
Daniel J. Berger | PH: (419) 358-3379
Associate Professor of Chemistry | FAX:(419) 358-3323
Bluffton College | bergerd@bluffton.edu
Bluffton OH 45817-1196 | http://cs.bluffton.edu/~berger/