Thursday 12 October 2017

“Beer, Wine and Spirits”

 On Thursday, 12 October, Friends gathered in Kelvingrove to hear the first in a series of free talks by Burrell Guides and were treated to an extremely amusing but very informative talk about alcohol by John Rattenbury.

We learned of the origins of beer making in Mesopotamia c 7000 BC and continued through the ages with the introduction of wine and finally spirits.

I learned a lot about items in the Burrell collection and facts like “tonnage” referring to a ship’s cargo comes from the word “tun”, meaning barrel, and the cargo was taxed according to how many “tuns” or barrels of wine it could hold.

The only thing which could have improved on the talk was if we had been able to sample some of the drinks being discussed!

The talks continue to be held on the second Thursday of the month at 2.00pm.


Liz Dent