The Romans liked wine and wheat to be available throughout the empire. But anyway, during the medieval warming period farmsteads rose in altitude and latitude, to levels not viable for agriculture today.Wine Lover's Guide To Ancient BritainAt one Northamptonshire site, the team documented remains of nearly four miles of bedding trenches that they estimate could have supported some 4,000 vines, the fruits of which would have yielded more than 2,600 gallons of wine a year. According to Meadows and Brown, the grapes were grown in the Mediterranean Roman style, that is between parallel sets of poles, a manner that has been described in detail by classical authors such as Pliny the Elder and Columella. Most of the wines the Romans produced were probably fruity, sweet, and brownish in color. The grapes would have been harvested early, before they were fully ripe, around late September. After pressing, large amounts of honey would have been added to the wine for both sweetness and to raise the alcohol content to ten or 12 percent. The wine would then have been placed in amphoras or barrels to ferment for about six months, ready for enjoyment in late winter or early spring.
by Angela M.H. Schuster
Volume 53 Number 2, March/April 2000
I bet those are facts the Enviro-fascists don't want to hear