English wine cask units the mediæval French and Italian "botte") or pipe was half a tun, or 1008 pints. Tradition has it that George, Duke of Clarence, the brother of Edward IV of England, was drowned in a butt of malmsey on 18 February 1478. (However, Josephine Tey in "The Daughter of Time" suggests that "drowned in a butt of malmsey" means rather that George, Duke of Clarence, drank himself to death rather than literally drowning in a container of wine.) In Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Cask of Amontillado", the narrator claims he has received "a pipe of what passes for Amontillado".
Wine in religious communities of the Middle East holy events, and also prescribed its use in Talmudic medicine. As the wine had to be prepared according to Jewish doctrine, only Jews could undertake its preparation, so a “ramified wine-trade was a necessity of life.” According to the documents of the Cairo Geniza, which mainly describe Jewish life in medieval Egypt, there were four types of Jewish wine-traders: those who invested in wine merchantry, full-time wine retailers or cellarers (Arabic nabbādhīn), religious dignitaries, and physicians; some Egyptian Jews are also listed as “grape-pressers” (Arabic ‘assar). Court records show that Jewish wine producers (Arabic karrām) leased pre-existing vineyards from the