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 Act 1879 Wormwood Scrubs Act 1879 The Wormwood Scrubs Act 1879 is a British public act passed by Parliament to lay down the conditions under which Wormwood Scrubs in west London was to be owned by the British Army. It is a local Act of Parliament. 135 acres of land known as Wormwood Scrubs was bought by the War Office (now the Ministry of Defence) in 1879 to "create a metropolitan exercising ground in pursuance of the Military Forces Localisation Act 1872" The purchase was designed to ensure that a sufficiently large area of land was usable for military training close to