Wine vessels kept them fresh and free from a vinegar smell. In medieval Europe, the Roman Catholic Church supported wine because the clergy required it for the Mass. Monks in France made wine for years, aging it in caves. An old English recipe that survived in various forms until the 19th century calls for refining white wine from bastard—bad or tainted "bastardo" wine. The English word "wine" comes from the Proto-Germanic "*winam", an early borrowing from the Latin "vinum", "wine" or "(grape) vine", itself derived from the Proto-Indo-European stem *"win-o-" (cf. , "gini"; Ancient Greek: "oinos"; Aeolic Greek: "woinos"; Hittite: "wiyana";
White wine balance different from red wine from which the tannic structure is removed. The balance is no longer based only on alcohol and acidity: this is the factor that explains the difficulty of making a white wine. For sweet and fortified white wines the presence of sugar adds a parameter to balance the alcohol and acidity. Maturing in the barrel gives wine a wooded touch and tannins from the oak give it structure. The strongest wines, as in some grand crus of Sauternes (Château d'Yquem for example) even support ageing in new wood. Ever since glass containers have existed, specialised glasses