Lead can make wine sweet. But beware, lead  is poisonous. It is a white crystalline compound with a sweet taste. Lead is also known as lead acetate, plumbous acetate, sugar of lead, salt of saturn and Goulard’s powder – named after Thomas Goulard.

Lead as wine sweetener became popular during the Roman empire. It is attributed to the Roman delicacy sapa. It is prepared by boiling soured wine in lead kettles. The soured wine contains acetic acid which react to lead kettles forming lead acetate. Sapa has pleasant taste and aroma and was widely used in Roman cooking. Due to its lead content, it attributed to lead poisoning during the ancient Roman aristocracy.