The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 · the Elder Pliny
CHAP. 10. (8.)—SEVEN KINDS OF SALTED WINES.
Thus far we have treated of wines, the goodness of which is due to the country of their growth. In Greece the wine that is known by the name of “bion,” and which is administered for its curative qualities in several maladies (as we shall have occasion to remark when we come to speak on the subject of Medicine[1342]), has been justly held in the very highest esteem. This wine is made in the following manner: the grapes are plucked before they are quite ripe, and then dried in a hot sun: for three days they are turned three times a day, and on the fourth day they are pressed, after which the juice is put in casks,[1343] and left to acquire age in the heat of the sun.[1344] The people of Cos mix sea-water in large quantities with their wines, an invention which they first learned from a slave, who adopted this method of supplying the deficiency that had been caused by his thievish propensities. When this is mixed with white must, the mixture receives the name of “leucocoum.”[1345] In other countries again, they follow a similar plan in making a wine called “tethalassomenon.”[1346] They make a wine also known as “thalassites,”[1347] by placing vessels full of must in the sea, a method which quickly imparts to the wine all the qualities of old age.[1348] In our own country too, Cato has shown the method of making Italian wine into Coan: in addition to the modes of preparation above stated, he tells us that it must be left exposed four years to the heat of the sun, in order to bring it to maturity. The Rhodian[1349] wine is similar to that of Cos, and the Phorinean is of a still salter flavour. It is generally thought that all the wines from beyond sea arrive at their middle state of maturity in the course of six[1350] or seven years.
CHAP. 11. (9.)—EIGHTEEN VARIETIES OF SWEET WINE. RAISIN-WINE AND HEPSEMA. All the luscious wines have but little[1351] aroma: the thinner the wine the more aroma it has. The colours of wines are four, white,[1352] brown,[1353] blood-coloured,[1354] and black.[1355] Psythium[1356] and melampsythium[1357] are varieties of raisin-wine which have the peculiar flavour of the grape, and not that of wine. Scybelites[1358] is a wine grown in Galatia, and Aluntium[1359] is a wine of Sicily, both of which have the flavour of mulsum.[1360] As to siræum, by some known as “hepsema,” and which in our language is called “sapa,”[1361] it is a product of art and not of Nature, being prepared from must boiled down to one-third: when must is boiled down to one-half only, we give it the name of “defrutum.” All these mixtures have been devised for the adulteration of honey.[1362] As to those varieties which we have previously mentioned, their merits depend upon the grape, and the soil in which it is grown. Next after the raisin-wine of Crete,[1363] those of Cilicia and Africa are held in the highest esteem, both in Italy as well as the adjoining provinces.
It is well known that it is made of a grape to which the Greeks have given the name of “stica,” and which by us is called “apiana:”[1364] it is also made of the scirpula.[1365] The grapes are left on the vine to dry in the sun, or else are boiled in the dolium.[1366] Some persons make this wine of the sweet and early white[1367] grape: they leave the grapes to dry in the sun, until they have lost pretty nearly half their weight, after which they crush them and subject them to a gentle pressure. They then draw off the juice, and add to the pulp that is left an equal quantity of well-water, the product of which is raisin-wine of second quality.[1368] The more careful makers not only do this, but take care also after drying the grapes to remove the stalks, and then steep the raisins in wine of good quality until they swell, after which they press them. This kind of raisin-wine is preferred to all others: with the addition of water, they follow the same plan in making the wine of second quality.
The liquor to which the Greeks give the name of “aigleucos,”[1369] is of middle quality, between the sirops and what is properly called wine; with us it is called “semper mustum.”[1370] It is only made by using great precaution, and taking care that the must does not ferment;[1371] such being the state of the must in its transformation into wine. To attain this object, the must is taken from the vat and put into casks, which are immediately plunged into water, and there left to remain until the winter solstice is past, and frosty weather has made its appearance. There is another kind, again, of natural aigleucos, which is known in the province of Narbonensis by the name of “dulce,”[1372] and more particularly in the district of the Vocontii. In order to make it, they keep the grape hanging on the tree for a considerable time, taking care to twist the stalk. Some, again, make an incision in the bearing shoot, as deep as the pith, while others leave the grapes to dry on tiles. The only grape, however, that is used in these various processes is that of the vine known as the “helvennaca.”[1373]
Some persons add to the list of these sweet wines that known as “diachyton.”[1374] It is made by drying grapes in the sun, and then placing them for seven days in a closed place upon hurdles, some seven feet from the ground, care being taken to protect them at night from the dews: on the eighth day they are trodden out: this method, it is said, produces a liquor of exquisite bouquet and flavour. The liquor known as melitites[1375] is also one of the sweet wines: it differs from mulsum, in being made of must; to five congii of rough-flavoured must they put one congius of honey, and one cyathus of salt, and they are then brought to a gentle boil: this mixture is of a rough flavour. Among these varieties, I ought to place what is known as “protropum;”[1376] such being the name given by some to the must that runs spontaneously from the grapes before they are trodden out. Directly it flows it is put into flaggons, and allowed to ferment; after which it is left to ripen for forty days in a summer sun, about the rising of the Dog-star.
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