The works of Horace : with English notes, critical and ... - Cristo Raul

086 EXCURSUS Iir.-^PREPARATION OF THE MUST,
wines of ttie moderns ;
bat the two former were chiefly employed for cor
reeling weak must, and for preparing various condiments, which were re
sorted to for the purpose of heightening the flavors of thi/ ancient wines.
They were, in fact, identical with the sahe or raising of the French, and
the sapa of the Italians, which are still used for culinary purposes, and
which are" made according to the same rules.
Accident is said to have led to the discovery of another method of preparing
the must. A slave, who had stolen part of the contents of a cask,
adopted the expedient of filling up the deficiency with sea water, which,
on examination, was thought to have improved the flavor of the liquor;
and thenceforth the practice of adding salt water to certain vrines became
very common among the Greeks. For this purpose the water was directed
to be taken up as far as possible from the shore, and in a calm and clear
day, in order that it might be had of the requisite strength and purity,
and to be boiled down to about a third part before it was added to the
wine. Columella mentions that his uncle was in the habit of first keeping
it six years, and then evaporating It for use ; and that of the liquor so
prepared a sextarius was sufficient for an amphora, being in the proportion
of about a pint -to little more than six gallons. " Some persons," he adds,
" throw in as much as two or three sextarii ; and I should not hesitate to do
so also, if the wine were strong enough to bear this admixture, without betraying
a saline taste,"* of which it must be acknowledged there was no
small risk. Nevertheless, several of the Grreeksweet wines were manufactured
in this manner ; and Cato has left us particular receipts for imitating
them, in which the allowance of sea water, or salt, is always a conspicuous
ingredient.^ " Hoc vinuin," he assures us, when speaking of one of these
artificial compounds, " non erit deterius quam Coum." Whatever the comparative
merits of the Coan wine may have been, there is reason to suspect
that the taste of the censor was not verytefined, and that the liquor
which he thus extols could never have become very grateful, even' although
it was allowed to ripen four years in the sun. When Horace de-
scribes the Chian wine, at the supper of Nasidienus, as being "^ maris ex-
pers,"* he has been generally supposed to allude to its being of inferior
quality from the want of salt water, whereas he probably meant to insinuate
that it had never travelled on the sea, but was a factitious or
home-made wine. For the more delicate wines, such as the avOocTfciag,
the proportion of sea water was only one fiftieth part.*
These were all the more simple preparations of the must, which appear
to have been adopted with the view of rendering it more durable ; but, as
several of the methods in question, instead of tending to preserve the
vinous qualities of the liquor, were rather calculated to injure and destroy
them, other means were devised for restoring to it a due degree of flavor
and aroma. Considering the attention that was bestowed on the evapora-
tion of the must, and the extensive scale on which the process was con-
ducted, it is somewhat extraordinary that the ancients should have con-
1. "Aujourd'hui," says Olivier de Serres, "nous appellona sabe Ic moust, qui par
boullir se consume dc la moitiS ; duquel nous nous serrons eeulemcnt pour faire
des aaucea en I'aijpareil des viandes."— ^Theatre d'Agriculture (ed. 1814), i., 297.
2. De lie Rustica, xii., 21, 3. Cap. xxiv., 105.
4. Senn., ii., 8, 15. 5/ AtkmtBUf, i.. 24
*