Fortified wine because he was inspired by a German wine flavoured with wormwood, an herb most famously used in distilling absinthe. However, wine flavoured with wormwood goes back to ancient Rome. The modern German word "Wermut" ("Wermuth" in the spelling of Carpano's time) means both "wormwood" and "vermouth". The herbs were originally used to mask raw flavours of cheaper wines, imparting a slightly medicinal "tonic" flavor. Vins doux naturels are lightly fortified wines typically made from white Muscat grapes or red Grenache grapes in the south of France. The production of vins doux naturels was perfected by Arnaud de Villeneuve at the
Wormwood Scrubs Scrubs was leased by the War Office from the Manor of Fulham. This was in order to exercise cavalry horses which until that point had been hacked out in Hyde Park, Belgrave Square and Regent's Park - then known as St. Marylebone's Park. This common land became known as Wormwood Scrubs, of which was bought by the War Office in 1878. In 1879, Parliament passed the Wormwood Scrubs Act, which aimed to create a "metropolitan exercising ground" for the military and to provide the Scrubs for "the perpetual use by the inhabitants of the metropolis for exercise and recreation". Under