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";
Straw wine of bottles of Refrontolo passito, a Denominazione of Colli di Conegliano DOCG, are produced. This wine is made from Marzemino grapes, it was already appreciated in the past as documented in the opera "Don Giovanni" of W.A. Mozart, where the protagonist describes it as an excellent wine. Recioto di Soave is the passito white wine from around Verona, made from the Garganega grape used in Soave. The name comes from the word, "recie" that in the native Venetian language means 'ears', a reference to this variety's habit of forming two small clusters of extra-ripe grapes sticking out of the top