Hock (wine)
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Hock is an English word for German wine, short for the now obsolete word hockamore (hochheimer), after the German town of Hochheim on the Main. Hochheim is a traditional vineyard site in the Rheingau region where wine shipments to England used to originate for many years.
Because of the famous taste and its supposed healthiness it is a British saying that "A good Hock keeps away the doc!" Today the term "Hock" is occasionally seen on bottles of (mostly cheap) wine in the United Kingdom, in a similar way to claret.
In Australia, it is still known as the main ingredient of an old-fashioned but cooling summer drink named 'hock, lime and lemon'.
[edit] Literary References
A stanza from Don Juan by Lord Byron mentions hock:
"And for the future - (but I write this reeling, / Having got drunk exceedingly to-day, / So that I seem to stand upon the ceiling) / I say - the future is a serious matter - / And so - for God's sake - hock and soda water!"