All the luscious wines have but little[1351] aroma: the thinner the wine the more aroma it has. The colours of wines are four, white,[1352] brown,[1353] blood-coloured,[1354] and black.[1355] Psythium[1356] and melampsythium[1357] are varieties of raisin-wine which have the peculiar flavour of the grape, and not that of wine. Scybelites[1358] is a wine grown in Galatia, and Aluntium[1359] is a wine of Sicily, both of which have the flavour of mulsum.[1360] As to siræum, by some known as “hepsema,” and which in our language is called “sapa,”[1361] it is a product of art and not of Nature, being prepared from must boiled down to one-third: when must is boiled down to one-half only, we give it the name of “defrutum.” All these mixtures have been devised for the adulteration of honey.[1362] As to those varieties which we have previously mentioned, their merits depend upon the grape, and the soil in which it is grown. Next after the raisin-wine of Crete,[1363] those of Cilicia and Africa are held in the highest esteem, both in Italy as well as the adjoining provinces. It is well known that it is made of a grape to which the Greeks have given the name of “stica,” and which by us is called “apiana:”[1364] it is also made of the scirpula.[1365] The grapes are left on the vine to dry in the sun, or else are boiled in the dolium.[1366] Some persons make this wine of the sweet and early white[1367] grape: they leave the grapes to dry in the sun, until they have lost pretty nearly half their weight, after which they crush them and subject them to a gentle pressure. They then draw off the juice, and add to the pulp that is left an equal quantity of well-water, the product of which is raisin-wine of second quality.[1368] The more careful makers not only do this, but take care also after drying the grapes to remove the stalks, and then steep the raisins in wine of good quality until they swell, after which they press them. This kind of raisin-wine is preferred to all others: with the addition of water, they follow the same plan in making the wine of second quality.
The liquor to which the Greeks give the name of “aigleucos,”[1369] is of middle quality, between the sirops and what is properly called wine; with us it is called “semper mustum.”[1370] It is only made by using great precaution, and taking care that the must does not ferment;[1371] such being the state of the must in its transformation into wine. To attain this object, the must is taken from the vat and put into casks, which are immediately plunged into water, and there left to remain until the winter solstice is past, and frosty weather has made its appearance. There is another kind, again, of natural aigleucos, which is known in the province of Narbonensis by the name of “dulce,”[1372] and more particularly in the district of the Vocontii. In order to make it, they keep the grape hanging on the tree for a considerable time, taking care to twist the stalk. Some, again, make an incision in the bearing shoot, as deep as the pith, while others leave the grapes to dry on tiles. The only grape, however, that is used in these various processes is that of the vine known as the “helvennaca.”[1373]
Some persons add to the list of these sweet wines that known as “diachyton.”[1374] It is made by drying grapes in the sun, and then placing them for seven days in a closed place upon hurdles, some seven feet from the ground, care being taken to protect them at night from the dews: on the eighth day they are trodden out: this method, it is said, produces a liquor of exquisite bouquet and flavour. The liquor known as melitites[1375] is also one of the sweet wines: it differs from mulsum, in being made of must; to five congii of rough-flavoured must they put one congius of honey, and one cyathus of salt, and they are then brought to a gentle boil: this mixture is of a rough flavour. Among these varieties, I ought to place what is known as “protropum;”[1376] such being the name given by some to the must that runs spontaneously from the grapes before they are trodden out. Directly it flows it is put into flaggons, and allowed to ferment; after which it is left to ripen for forty days in a summer sun, about the rising of the Dog-star.
CHAP. 12. (10.)—THREE VARIETIES OF SECOND-RATE WINE.
Those cannot properly be termed wines, which by the Greeks are known under the name of “deuteria,”[1377] and to which, in common with Cato, we in Italy give the name of “lora,”[1378] being made from the husks of grapes steeped in water. Still, however, this beverage is reckoned as making one of the “labourers’”[1379] wines. There are three varieties of it: the first[1380] is made in the following manner:—After the must is drawn off, one-tenth of its amount in water is added to the husks, which are then left to soak a day and a night, and then are again subjected to pressure. A second kind, that which the Greeks are in the habit of making, is prepared by adding one-third in water of the quantity of must that has been drawn off, and after submitting the pulp to pressure, the result is reduced by boiling to one-third of its original quantity. A third kind, again, is pressed out from the wine-lees; Cato gives it the name of “fæcatum.”[1381] None of these beverages, however, will keep for more than a single year.
CHAP. 13. (11.)—AT WHAT PERIOD GENEROUS WINES WERE FIRST COMMONLY MADE IN ITALY.
While treating of these various details, it occurs to me to mention that of the eighty different kinds throughout the whole earth, which may with propriety be reckoned in the class of generous[1382] wines, fully two-thirds[1383] are the produce of Italy, which consequently in this respect far surpasses any other country: and on tracing this subject somewhat higher up, the fact suggests itself, that the wines of Italy have not been in any great favour from an early period, their high repute having only been acquired since the six hundredth year of the City.
CHAP. 14. (12.)—THE INSPECTION OF WINE ORDERED BY KING ROMULUS.
Romulus made libations, not with wine but with milk; a fact which is fully established by the religious rites which owe their foundation to him, and are observed even to the present day. The Posthumian Law, promulgated by King Numa, has an injunction to the following effect:—“Sprinkle not the funeral pyre with wine;” a law to which he gave his sanction, no doubt, in consequence of the remarkable scarcity of that commodity in those days. By the same law, he also pronounced it illegal to make a libation to the gods of wine that was the produce of an unpruned vine, his object being to compel the husbandmen to prune their vines; a duty which they showed themselves reluctant to perform, in consequence of the danger which attended climbing the trees.[1384] M. Varro informs us, that Mezentius, the king of Etruria, succoured the Rutuli against the Latini, upon condition that he should receive all the wine that was then in the territory of Latium.