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Do we know what the Klingon Bloodwine is actually made of? Is it actually as the name suggests? or is it just referring to the colour of it?

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It's never made clear in the on-screen canon, but according to the Star Trek Cookbook (by Ethan Phillips and William J. Birnes):

"Klingon bloodwine is exactly what it says it is: fermented blood and sugar."

There's been a lot of speculation among fans as to how one is supposed to interpret Worf's quote:

"I like my bloodwine very young, and very sweet."

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    Young wine means low amounts of fermentation - low alcohol. Yeast eats sugars, the more sugar, the more alcohol. So his blood wine preference is not overly weak, but isn't terribly strong, either.
    – aramis
    Jan 9, 2013 at 9:24
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    Aye, that's why people like speculating about whether he was talking age/sweetness in typical wine terms, or if it's something more sinister/Klingon ;)
    – loghaD
    Jan 9, 2013 at 11:16
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    It's also worth noting that the blood can and does ferment. Here a lawyer mentions DUI blood sample contamination by fermentation.
    – aramis
    Jan 10, 2013 at 2:21
  • @aramis - depends. If it's truly like wine, then yes, otherwise, aging means that the alcohol is just evaporating, like with scotch (older scotch generally has a lower proof than younger). It all depends on whether the fermentation continues while it ages.
    – Chris B. Behrens
    Aug 29, 2014 at 20:23
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    @ChrisB.Behrens there are a number of things that change during the maturation process for whisky besides the alcohol evaporating. The color in the whisky comes from the cask, being slowly dissolved into the whisky. Some of the other alcohols oxidize or leech into the wood of the cask. Alcohol and water both evaporate - how much of each depends on temperature and ambient humidity. Other chemistry occurs to the distillate. I think it's interesting - read here: shakestir.com/features/id/551/science-of-barrel-aging
    – pcurry
    Sep 3, 2014 at 17:20
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Blood of their enemies and sugar

TNG writer Ronald D. Moore (responsible for much of the Klingon arc in TNG) was asked this question today at the Star Trek 50th Anniversary Celebration in Las Vegas.

MOORE: The blood of their enemies. And it would be really, really sweet. They like it sweet. So blood with a lot of sugar.

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    So, exactly what the ST: Cookbook says it is. Nice confirmation.
    – Valorum
    Aug 7, 2016 at 22:54
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    @Valorum : Thanks. He was a little more specific, of course: the blood of their enemies, not just any old blood that you get on offer from Tesco.
    – Praxis
    Aug 11, 2016 at 17:51
  • By "their enemies", I took it to mean simply any race considered to be an enemy of the Klingon Empire rather than the specific enemies of the House of Mogh/Duras, etc.
    – Valorum
    Aug 11, 2016 at 17:53
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    @Valorum : That's also what I took it to mean --- enemies in general. But I'm differentiating between blood of enemies killed in glorious battle and the blood of a targ that died of old age at its master's feet, i.e. not any blood will do.
    – Praxis
    Aug 11, 2016 at 18:01
  • Fair enough. I think you deserve the acceptance, simply for the quality of the source.
    – Valorum
    Aug 11, 2016 at 18:10
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In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Martok boasts that he has a barrel of 2309 bloodwine and that there is no finer "vintage". "Vintage" when used to refer to wine implies grapes or at least something that grows in a vineyard. So I don't think bloodwine contains blood any more than sangria contains sangre.

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    I don't doubt that's where the word comes from, but it appears to have moved on to be used a lot more broadly than that; Dictionary.com gives "a time of origin" as one definition, and there are vintage ales, vintage whiskeys... ...so I wouldn't be too sure grapes (or the Klingon equivalent of grapes) are at all involved.
    – loghaD
    Jan 10, 2013 at 19:15
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    Just as @loghaD suggested, vintage just refers to when something was made, and little else. It doesn't refer to the batch of grapes themselves, nor the hops or any other kinds of ingredients, just the year it was made.
    – doppelgreener
    Aug 25, 2013 at 5:50
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    Given that the federation/Klingon war didn't fully end until 2344, one has to wonder what enemies blood was used to make that vintage of wine.
    – John Meacham
    Nov 7, 2016 at 11:04
  • A vintage car doesn't grow on a vineyard. neither does a vintage 1950s comic book. Thats maybe where the word originally came from, but it has long encompassed a much broader meaning.
    – Polygnome
    Sep 7, 2020 at 15:02

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