Fine wines were kept in the wood for two, three, or four years, according to their different properties; after which they were transferred to amphoræ, and that operation required the greatest care.[XXVIII_82]
The amphoræ were earthen pitchers with two handles,[XXVIII_83] reserved for choice wines.[XXVIII_84] To prevent evaporation through their pores, they covered them with pitch, and stopped the neck with wood or cork, covered with a mastic composed of pitch, chalk, and oil, or any other fat substance. The name of the wine was inscribed on the amphora; its age was indicated by the designation of the consuls who were in office when it was made. When the amphora was of glass, it was ticketed with these details.[XXVIII_85] For this kind of vessels they had store-rooms, which were commonly at the top of the house.[XXVIII_86] By exposing them to the sun and to smoke the maturity of the wine was hastened.[XXVIII_87] The discovery of this means of ripening, which the Roman œnophiles never failed to practice, was attributed to the Consul Opimius.[XXVIII_88]
Pliny assures us that the vineyards of the entire world produce 195 different kinds of wine; or double that number, if we reckon every variety.[XXVIII_89] The whole universe, says he, furnishes only 80 of superior quality, and of this number, two-thirds belong to Italy.[XXVIII_90] Modern agriculture must have singularly disturbed the calculations of the Roman naturalist.
Let that be as it may, the best Greek wines were those of Thasos,[XXVIII_91] Lesbos,[XXVIII_92] Chios,[XXVIII_93] [Q] and Cos.[XXVIII_94] Italy boasted of the Sentinum,[XXVIII_95] the
DESCRIPTION OF [PLATE No. XXIV.]
No. 1. Amphora, or Dolium. Upon one of the handles is engraved the sigles P. S. A. X; the first two, probably, are the initials of the proprietor, and the last describes the capacity of the vase, being 250 quarts.—Montfaucon’s “Antiquities,” expl.
Nos. 2 and 3. Smaller Dolium, found at Herculaneum, buried at the bottom of a cellar. The mouths of these vases were fixed in a marble slab, and closed with a cover of the same material. There is in the Villa Albani, an amphora of terra cotta of this kind, which contained 18 Roman amphoræ, or 463 quarts, as marked by numerical letters, engraved upon the outside. In 1750, one of these amphoræ was found at Pouzzole, which was five feet six inches in height, and five feet in diameter, containing 1,728 quarts. Several amphoræ from Herculaneum and Pompeii have inscriptions written in colours, and which give the name of the Prætor Nonnius; the same as those found at Rome, which were inscribed with the name of the consul, to fix the year of the vintage.
