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

EXCURSUS VI. VARIETIES OF ANCIENT WINES. 695
pronounced likely to keep well. Hence, at Athena, and in other parts of
Greece, there was a feast in honor of Bacchus on the eleventh day of the
month Anthesterion, when the westerly winds had generally set in, at
which the produce of the preceding vintage was first tasted.i In order to
^lure castomera, various tricks appear to have been practiced by the an-
cient wine-dealers ; some, for instance, put the new vintage into a cask
that had been seasoned with an old and high-flavored wine i others plaoei
cheese and nuts in the cellar, that those who entered might he tempted
to eat, and thus have their palates blunted before they tasted the Vine.
The buyer is recommended by Florentinus to taste the wines he proposes
to purchase during a north wind, when he will have the faurest chance of
forming an accurate judgment of their qualities.'
VARIETIES OF ANCIENT WINES.
The ancientwines were, for the most part, designated according to the
places where they grew; but occasionally they borrowed the appellation
of the grapes from which they were made j and the name of the vine, ov
vineyard, stood indiscriminately for that of the wine. When very old,
they received certain epithets indicative of that circumstance, as aavplag,
consulage, Opimianum. But as it sometimes happened that by long
keeping they lost their original flavor, or acquired a disagreeably bitter
taste, it was not unusual to introduce into them a portion of must, with
the view of correcting these defects : wine thus cured was called vinum
rccentatum. The wine presented to persons of distinction was termed
yeoovato;,' or honorarium. Such was the rich sweet wine, of which
CJlysses had twelve amphorae given him by Maron, and which was so
highly valued by the donor that he kept it carefully concealed from all
his household, save his wife and the intendant of his stores, as its attrac-
tions were not easily resisted.
None of the more generous wines were reckoned flt for drinking before
the fifth year, and the majority of them were kept for a much longer
period. The thin white wines are stated by Galen to have ripened
soonest, acquiring, first, a certain degree of sharpness, which, by the time
they were ten years old, gave place to a gratefiil pungency, if they, did
not turn acid within the first four years. Even the strong and dry white
wines, he remarks, notwithstanding their body, were liable to acescency
after the tenth year, unless they had been kept with due care ; but if they
escaped this danger, they might be preserved for an indefinite length of
time. Such was the case more especially with the Surrentine wine
which continued raw and harsh until about twenty years old, and afterward
improved progressively, seldom contracting any impleasant bitterness,
but retaining its qualities unimpaired to the last, and disputing the
palm of excellence with the growths of Falemum.* The tramarine wines
which were imported into Italy were thought to ha,ve attained a moderate
and such as were strong enough to bear a sea
age in six or seven years ;
voyage were found to be much improved by it."
The lighter red wines {mna horna, fugada) were used for common
1 Sympos., lii., qusBSt 7. 2. Geoponica, vii, 7. 3. II., iv., S59.
4. Oriba,., Con. Hed., v., 6. 5. fiin., Nat. Hist, xlv, 18.