‘They have no wine.’ You can almost hear Mary saying it under her breath.
The disciples learned about intercession. What brought this miracle about? A humble request from Mary his mother, which you might say she should not really have made and she had to have the gentlest reproof – please do not ask me for family favours. But still, it was intercession. A quiet prayer and the miracle was performed in response.
The wine of those days was the ultimate cottage industry. Not everywhere, but in Galilee it was just a cottage industry. This is roughly six months after the end of the grape harvest, and they had already exhausted the local supply.
What sort of wine was it? The experts say it was between one and a half and two percent alcohol. It was very weak stuff. In more sophisticated regions, they could get it up to four and five percent. Well yes, you could still be drunk on it and people did by using excess. But in the villages it was weaker because they did not have the technology. It would turn into vinegar. They could not control the fermentation process so well. So it was weak wine, and even then, many people think it was watered down, which it certainly was for their religious events.