Where does the wine and host come from?

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The wine given at communion is always the best tasting. I was wondering where a church gets the wine from? Who makes the host?
 
catholicanne said:
The wine given at communion is always the best tasting. I was wondering where a church gets the wine from? Who makes the host?
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Wineries. Some do make wines that fit the specification of the Church and are approved by the bishops.

Hosts have various sources. I’ve seen nunneries make them. Some are provided by an accredited baker. In the Eastern Churches, the bread offered for Communion usually is made by someone in the parish. I myself make prosphora for our parish.
 
Different parishes use different wines and some are good and some are vile. Depends on what the pastor likes, usually.

We get our wine from the liquor store, which in our province can only sell it to churches. The wine comes from the Cribari Vineyards and is labelled ‘Altar Wine’. We usually have the “Light Red” or the “Rosato”.
 
catholicanne said:
The wine given at communion is always the best tasting. I was wondering where a church gets the wine from? Who makes the host?
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Um, it comes from wherever the parish wants to get it from. In general, the wine comes from wineries, and the hosts come from places that make communion hosts. 😃
 
This winery was started by the first Bisop of my diocese, expressly for the purpose of having appropriate altar wine available.
He, by most accounts, was quite the “stickler” for details!! 😉

Most parishes still use a product form this vineyard, others have what they call “wine Sunday” where people bring in wine to be used.
 
Phemie said:
Different parishes use different wines and some are good and some are vile. Depends on what the pastor likes, usually.

We get our wine from the liquor store, which in our province can only sell it to churches. The wine comes from the Cribari Vineyards and is labelled ‘Altar Wine’. We usually have the “Light Red” or the “Rosato”.
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My mom tried to get sacramental wine once in Saskatchewan and was told something similar. She was told sacramental wine requires a special license to sell and can only be sold to priests. 🤷 The guy at the LBS (liquor board store) recommended Black Tower as a close substitute taste-wise for white sacramental wine.
 
catholicanne said:
The wine given at communion is always the best tasting. I was wondering where a church gets the wine from? Who makes the host?
Click to expand...
Can. 924 §1. The most holy eucharistic sacrifice must be offered with bread and with wine in which a little water must be mixed.

§2. The bread must be only wheat and recently made so that there is no danger of spoiling.

§3. The wine must be natural from the fruit of the vine and not spoiled.

Generally speaking, wine with a bit higher alcohol content is used (there is a limit to the alcohol content, reflecting that wine must be used, and not spirits). Low alcohol content wines have a higher chance of turning to vinegar without the celebrant knowing it. Usually altar wine is sweeter and less tannic than many table wines, because a sip of table wine served with no food can taste a bit harsh, especially to those who never drink wine except at Mass. IOW, the government isn’t trying to keep it from the public so much as there isn’t a big demand since the religious market can get theirs from outside sources.

As for sulfites:
"Mass Wine: Treated with Sulphurous Anhydride, Etc. (Holy Office) Private.

The Holy Office was asked by the Archbishop of Tarracona: Whether in the Sacrifice of the Mass, wine may be used which is made from the juice of the grape, treated with sulphurous anhydride or with potassium bisulphite.

Reply. In the affirmative.

(Private) ; Holy Office, 2 Aug., 1922.

Not published in the AAS; cf. Il Monitore, Oct., 1923, p. 289."

I knew a priest who (this would make my deceased wine-maker friend turn in her grave) would mix a white and a red to make a mixture he thought people would like. You always know it is natural wine made from grapes, but exactly what it is beyond that, only the priest might know! Usually they are more than willing to disclose that, if you ask.
Deo_Gratias42 said:
My mom tried to get sacramental wine once in Saskatchewan and was told something similar. She was told sacramental wine requires a special license to sell and can only be sold to priests. 🤷 The guy at the LBS (liquor board store) recommended Black Tower as a close substitute taste-wise for white sacramental wine.
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My impression is that the liquor-control authorities in Canada import all the wine for the retail market, but that it is possible to get permission to circumvent this route with a license to buy sacramental wine directly elsewhere…but only for sacramental use. It is illegal to obtain wine for sacramental use and then to turn around and sell it for non-sacramental use. If the Canadian wine board doesn’t elect to buy wines from sacramental wineries, those wines just aren’t available to the general public.

There is nothing like that in the US. Here, wine is wine is wine, and usually you can get what you want from any place in the world. If your state requires you to get a distributor to import it for you, usually there is an importer somewhere who will do it (although you might have to import enough to make it worth their hassle).

If you know someone in the US, you could find out what wine you want, have them get it, and then have them bring it across the border as part of their allowed allotment…a small amount, yes, but oh, well, other than getting the wine board to have some ordered for you, I don’t know what else can be done.

This is Cribari Winery: altarwine.com/
Mont La Salle: montlasallealtarwines.com/wines.php
Guasti: josephfilippiwinery.com/altar-wines.html

and so on, just search “sacramental winery” or similar.
 
EasterJoy said:
Generally speaking, wine with a bit higher alcohol content is used (there is a limit to the alcohol content, reflecting that wine must be used, and not spirits).

My impression is that the liquor-control authorities in Canada import all the wine for the retail market, but that it is possible to get permission to circumvent this route with a license to buy sacramental wine directly elsewhere…but only for sacramental use. It is illegal to obtain wine for sacramental use and then to turn around and sell it for non-sacramental use. If the Canadian wine board doesn’t elect to buy wines from sacramental wineries, those wines just aren’t available to the general public.
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As far as alcohol content goes, they have the same % of alcohol as any of the regular wines in my inventory 13-14 %

In Canada I can order Cribari from liturgical supply store I regularly do business with but it’s cheaper to get them from the liquor store – at least in my province.
 
Btw: it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who thinks sacramental wine tastes better than regular wine.
 
Deo_Gratias42 said:
Btw: it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who thinks sacramental wine tastes better than regular wine.
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That depends on your taste in wine and what the priest likes. Personally, I dislike the wine my parish purchases. One of them reminds me too much of Challenge or Hermit sherry we used to buy when we were in high school. Blech!

I’d much prefer a nice dry red.
 
Phemie said:
As far as alcohol content goes, they have the same % of alcohol as any of the regular wines in my inventory 13-14 %

In Canada I can order Cribari from liturgical supply store I regularly do business with but it’s cheaper to get them from the liquor store – at least in my province.
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I stand corrected. That must be a preference of the person I talked to (who chose altar wines in the range of 18%), maybe because that parish doesn’t have daily Mass and so can expect to go through a particular opened bottle of wine quite slowly?
 
EasterJoy said:
I stand corrected. That must be a preference of the person I talked to (who chose altar wines in the range of 18%), maybe because that parish doesn’t have daily Mass and so can expect to go through a particular opened bottle of wine quite slowly?
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Don’t they have a sacristan and altar servers?:p:p:p
 
catholicanne said:
The wine given at communion is always the best tasting. I was wondering where a church gets the wine from? Who makes the host?
Click to expand...
I need to find out where our parish gets ours as it’s fantastic. I visited another parish last weekend and their wine was a white wine and tasted like 3 for 5 dollar special. It was horrible.
 
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