Jars Retrieved From The Ocean Reveal The Secrets of Ancient Roman Wine

https://www.sciencealert.com ^ | 5 JULY 2022 | DAVID NIELD

[Red Badger]

Pine Wine PinGGG!............

[Adder]

Use pitch to flavor wine?

I guess if you want it to suck...

[Red Badger]

I will pine no wine before it’s mine...................

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Red Badger. Retsina ping?

[MiddleEarth]

It’s still B.C. and A.D. no matter how they insist that it isn’t.

[Ed Condon]

Locally sourced grapes, gosh, why didn’t they have grapes flown in from California?

[Seruzawa]

I’ll drink to that!

[Monkey Face]

Can I get a copy of the recipe?

‘Face

;o]

[FLT-bird]

It would be interesting to make some and see how it tastes.

[Fiji Hill]

...in 1–2 century BCE BC, part of the late Greco-Italic period.

FIFY

[Carriage Hill]

I don’t buy into that BCE etc crap, either.

[married21]

A friend of mine who is part Greek told me this kind of pine-flavored wine tastes terrible. Wikipedia:

Retsina (Greek: Ρετσίνα) is a Greek white (or rosé) resinated wine, which has been made for at least 2,000 years. Its unique flavor is said to have originated from the practice of sealing wine vessels, particularly amphorae, with Aleppo Pine resin in ancient times. Before the invention of impermeable glass bottles, oxygen caused many wines to spoil within the year. Pine resin helped keep air out, while infusing the wine with resin aroma. The Romans began to use barrels in the 3rd century AD, removing any oenological necessity for resin, but the flavor itself was so popular that the style is still widespread today.

[C19fan]

I was listening to a podcast where the topic of Roman wine came up. The host claimed Roman wine would have tasted horrid to a modern person with all the added impurities from the production and storage. The common practice was to dilute and heat up Roman wine.
Although people all over Eurasia loved Roman wine as it was a major export item.

[SunkenCiv]

Hmm, can’t find it. I got this prison recipe for spud juice...

[pepsi_junkie]

So for the perishable items they used locally sourced goods and for the non-perishable items they imported from other regions where they are more plentiful.

Logical, not surprising but the techniques used to show it are interesting.

[pepsi_junkie]

I was listening to a podcast where the topic of Roman wine came up. The host claimed Roman wine would have tasted horrid to a modern person with all the added impurities from the production and storage.

Maybe but it probably goes both ways. If modern man would say that Roman wine would taste awful with the impurities ancient Romans would probably say modern wine was flavorless swill lacking the character of a true Roman vintage.

Different points of reference and perspective.

[colorado tanker]

Don’t accept anything less than the best Falernian!

[Night Hides Not]

Hmm, I wonder if that was the genesis for gluhwein, i.e. hot spiced wine. It's a big hit during the winter months, warms you up quick.

The Roman influence along the Rhine and Mosel Rivers is strong. I lived in Traben-Trarbach, about a 30 minute drive south to Trier. On a nice weekend day (very few fwiw), I liked to drive to Trier and spend an hour or two drinking wine in an open air cafe close to the Porta Nigra. Many spots along the Mosel offer breathtaking views.

What's special (to me) about the Mosel is that over 2/3 of the grapes are grown on slopes greater than 60%. Everything is done by hand, due to the severity of the slope.

I still buy wine from my favorite winemaker in Germany: Weingut Eduard Kroth of Briedel. It's been a family business since 1503. Their spatlese is to die for.