And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you”

Luke 22: 19-20 commenting on the Last Super

And so it was that good Christians found themselves opening their mouths on Sunday morning to receive a little bread and wine which, many believe, turns into the flesh and blood of Christ as it enters our bodies.

And that begs the question, what does the blood of our Saviour taste like?

Is it a full-blooded (pardon the pun) hairs-on-the-divine-chest number like a Barossa Shiraz? Or something more refined, yet still powerful, like a Romanee Conti?

I was never confirmed, so I never got to taste communion – all I ever received from our Vicar was a pat on the head (for which I am very thankful). My good friend was the altar boy and I’m sure he sipped directly from the bottle, but being C of E, none of us believed the wine was morphing into JC’s blood.

I know what the tears of Christ taste like as Lacryma Christi is a very pleasant Italian white from the volcanic soil of Mount Vesuvius. But the blood?

A clue could lie in what they were drinking at the Last Supper. It seems the makers of the Vivino wine app wanted to know the answer to this question and sought expert advice from Father Daniel Kendall of University of San Francisco and Dr. Patrick McGovern, scientific director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Project for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages and Health at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. Yes, that’s a job. They decided the closest thing around today would be an Amarone – a robust red from Valpolicella in Italia, made using dried grapes which results in 15% alcohol and a lot of intensity. They suggested adding a few drops of pine oil to this red would come close to Kosher. I’d be quite happy with the Amarone, but not with a hint of Retsina!

I was lucky enough to try some 1982 Bordeaux wines in around 1988. One of them definitely had a hint of blood to the taste – it was either Chateau Margaux or Ducru-Beaucaillou. And if that is what our Lord Jesus Christ’s blood tastes like I can understand why there are so many Catholics in the world. It was magnificent.

Jesus clearly liked a drop. Consider the wedding at Cana when they ran out of wine and mother Mary asks the young lad to do something about it. Six stone jars, each filled with 20 plus gallons of water became six stone jars filled with 20 plus gallons of wine. But that was water into wine, not blood, so no doubt it was a bit lighter. Even so, the master of ceremonies said to the bridegroom “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

John 2: 1-11

Forget chocolate. We should all be drinking wine at Easter.