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

704 EXCURSUS YUI. PRINCIPAL WINES OF THE ROMANS
able to make some approach to a more correct estimate of their true chat
acters, and of pointing out, at the same time, those modem growths to
which they have the greatest resemblance.
In the first place, all writers agree in describing tbeFalernian wine as
very strong and durable, and so rough in its recent state that it could not
be drunk with pleasure; but required to be kept a great number of years
before it was sufficiently mellow. Horace even terms it a "fiery" wine,
and calls for water from the spring to moderate its strength ;i aad Persiua
applies to it the epithet " mdomitum," probably in allusion to its heady
qualify.* From Gralen's account, it appears to have been in best condition
from the tenth to the twentieth year; afterward it was apt to contract an
unpleasant bitterness ; yet we may suppose that, when of a good vintage,
and especially when preserved in glass bottles, it would keep much longer
without having its flavor impaired. Horace, who was a lover of old wine,
proposes, in a well-known ode,* to broach an amphora which was coeval
with himself, and which, therefore, was probably not less than thirty-three
years old, as Torquatus Manliua was consul in the six hundred and eighty
ninth year from the foundation of the city, and Corvinus, in honor of whom
the wine was to be drawn, did not obtain the consulate till 723 A.U.C. As
he bestows the highest commendation on this sample, ascribing to it all
the virtues of the choicest vintages, and pronouncing it truly worthy to be
produced on a day of festivity, we must believe it to have been really of
excellent quality. In general, however, it probably suffered, more or less,
from the mode in which it was kept ; and those whose taste was not per
verted by the rage for high-dried wines, preferred it in its middle stata
Thus Cicero, when animadverting on the style of the orations which Thucydides
has introduced in his History, and which, he conceives, would
have been more polished if they had been composed at a later period,
takes occasion to illustrate the subject of his discourse by a reference to
*'
the effects of age upon wine. Those orations," he remarks, " I have .always
been disposed to admire ; but I neither would imitate .them if I could,
nor could I if I would, being in this respect like one who delights in Falernian
wine, hut chooses neither that which is so new as to date from the
last consuls, nor that which is so old as to take the name of Annician or
Opimian. Yet the wines so entitled are, I believe, in the highest repute ;
but excessive age neither has the suavity which we require, nor is it even
bearable."* The same writer, supping one evening with Bamasippus,
had some indifferent vrine presented to him, which he was pressed to
drink, " as being I'alemian forty years old." On tasting it, he pleasantly
observed "that it bore its age uncommonly well."*
Among our present wines, we have no hesitation in fixing upon those
of Xere's and Madeira as the two to which the Falemian offers the most
distinct features of resemblance. Both are straw-colored wines, assuming
a deeper tint from age, or from particular circumstances in the'quality or
management of the. vintage. Both of them present the several varieties
of diy, sweet, and light. Both of them are exceedingly strong and durable
wines, being, when new, very rough, harsh, and fiery, and requiring
1. Carm., ii., 11. 2. Safc, iii., 3. '3. Cann., iii., Sl
4. Brut, 83. S. Macrob., Satumta., ii., a