Jeropiga

Portuguese alcoholic drink

Jeropiga is the name given to a traditional alcoholic drink of Portuguese origin that is prepared by adding aguardente to grape must.^[1]^[2] The addition is made in the beginning of the fermentation process, making it different to another Portuguese traditional drink, the abafado, in which aguardente is added during the fermentation process.^[1]

Preparation

The usual given ratios for the confection of jeropiga are of two parts of must to one part of aguardente or brandy.^[3]^[4] The must's natural fermentation process is interrupted by the addition of the alcohol.^[5]^[6]

Jeropiga traditionally accompanies the magosto autumn festivals,^[7] celebrated also in northern Spain and Catalonia, where the festival is known as Castanyada. Jeropiga is home-brewed and drunk throughout the year in Trás-os-Montes and the Beira regions in Central Portugal.

Historic use in fortified wines

Historically, jeropiga has been added to Port wine to increase its sweetness,^[8]^[9] in a practise that is still applied today to some fortified wines.^[5] The historic use of jeropiga mixed with brandy and elderberries as a means of coloring in red wines has also been recorded.^[8] Nineteenth-century English writers largely dismissed jeropiga when discussing the port wine trade, with W. H. Bidwell calling it an "adulteration used to bringing up the character of ports".^[3] In 1844, the English wine merchant Joseph James Forrester anonymously published A Word or Two on Port Wine, a pamphlet that, among other criticisms made to the wine trade in the Douro region, denounced the use of jeropiga in wine.^[10]

References

^ ^a ^b "Decreto Lei n.º 326/88 - Capítulo III art. 18º" (PDF) (in Portuguese). Diário da República. 29 September 1988.
^ "Lei nº 7.678, de 8 de Novembro de 1988 - Capítulo IV art. 16º" (in Portuguese). Palácio do Planalto. 8 November 1988.
^ ^a ^b Agnew & Bidwell 1853, p. 62.
^ "São Martinho: How to make jeropiga at home?" (in Portuguese). Vortex Magazine. 7 November 2015.
^ ^a ^b Mayson 2018, p. 363.
^ Souza, Peixoto & de Toledo 1995, p. 177.
^ "Jeropiga" (in Portuguese). Direção-Geral de Agricultura e Desenvolvimento Rural. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
^ ^a ^b Hassall 1876, p. 756.
^ Thudichum & Dupré 1872, p. 677.
^ Mayson 2018, pp. 30–32.

Sources

Agnew, John Holmes; Bidwell, Walter Hilliard, eds. (1853). "Wine and Wine-Drinkers". The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art. 28. New York: W. H. Bidwell: 62 – via Google Books.
Hassall, Arthur Hill (1876). "Wine and Its Adulterations". Food: Its Adulterations, and the Methods for Their Detection. University of Michigan. ISBN 978-1527864320 – via Google Books.
Mayson, Richard (2018). Port and the Douro: Fourth Edition. Classic Wine Library. Infinite Ideas. ISBN 978-1999619381 – via Google Books.
Souza, Julio Seabra Inglez; Peixoto, Aristeu Mendes; de Toledo, Francisco Ferraz (1995). "Jeropiga". Enciclopédia agrícola brasileira: I-M - Volume 4 (in Portuguese). University of São Paulo. ISBN 978-8531407192 – via Google Books.
Thudichum, John Louis William; Dupré, August (1872). "Jeropiga". A Treatise on the Origin, Nature, and Varieties of Wine: Being a Complete Manual of Viticulture and Oenology. Cornell University Library. ISBN 978-1112369544 – via Google Books.