The Booklovers' Guide to Wine

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The Booklovers' Guide to Wine Page 9

by Patrick Alexander


  From the earliest times in Mesopotamia and Egypt, wine had been associated with civilization. Unlike nomadic herdsmen, only a settled and organized society could cultivate and enjoy the pleasures of wine. With the rapid expansion of Roman power, wine became even more an indication of “civilization.” As the uncouth, beer drinking barbarians of Gaul and Germany were assimilated into the growing Roman empire, wine—like roads, aqueducts and public baths—became yet one more indication of the civilized life.

  Amphorae: The ancient Greeks stored their wine in large clay vessels called amphorae, which were used to transport wine all over the Mediterranean. Amphorae are shaped like long, tapered vases, with a pair of handles at the top. Their shape meant that they could be strung together by a rope through the handles and carried on ships in this manner, like bunches of grapes.

  One reason we know so much about wine in the ancient world is that it was stored and transported in amphorae, which on average held about forty liters of wine (sixty modern bottles, or five cases). Since amphorae were always made from local clay in the region where the wine (or grain or olive oil) was being shipped from, scientists are able to use DNA testing to locate the origin of each amphorae, irrespective of where it was eventually found. Additionally, the handles of the amphorae acted like labels, and the potter would stamp a description of the contents into the clay handle, partly for taxation purposes and also to prevent fraud. Because amphorae were used for about four thousand years all around the Mediterranean and the Near East, we have been able to learn a lot about the wine trade of the ancient world by examining the thousands of amphorae remains. An amphorae made of Lebanese clay and found in a Phoenician shipwreck off the coast of Cornwall would indicate trade between Lebanon and England, for example.

  There is a 150-foot-high mound in Rome, Monte Testaccio, about a mile in circumference, which was built entirely from fragments of discarded amphorae—a testament to the fact that Romans consumed some fifty million gallons of wine annually. The mound is located at one of the original entrances to the city, where the amphorae of wine from Naples and Greece were sailed up the River Tiber and unloaded. The wine would have been transferred into smaller containers for distribution throughout the city, and the original amphorae destroyed and discarded into a growing pile. Interestingly enough, the Monte Testaccio section of Rome is currently a fashionable night spot filled with nightclubs and wine bars—as though the original scent of wine still permeates the air.

  Roman vineyards: It should be emphasized, yet again, that most wine was simply a healthier alternative to water and, by today’s standards, was weak and tasted more like vinegar. The “vinegar” offered to Christ on the cross was not an insult or added torture; it was simply to quench his thirst with what the ordinary Roman soldiers themselves drank. The expensive wines that were sought after by the wealthier ruling classes were mostly white and sweet, raisinated wines with high alcohol content. The high sugar and alcohol levels meant they could be stored for much longer without oxidizing and turning to vinegar. Most of these wines were still imported from Greece and Lebanon, although the Romans produced their own Falernian wines from the slopes of Mt. Falernius not far from the city of Rome. Falernian wine was a white, raisinated wine made with the Aglianico vine which was brought to Italy by the Greeks. An inscription on the ruins of an ancient Roman bar says:

  For one coin you can drink wine.

  For two you can drink the best.

  For four you can drink Falernian.

  The Romans, as with most things Greek, adopted the Greek Symposium and renamed it the Convivium. Unlike the Greeks, Romans permitted certain high-class females to attend their meetings, which were more like banquets, or even drinking parties. As the Falernian flowed, togas, gowns, and morals loosened; wine and dancing girls prevailed. The most famous example of such a Roman wine party is the description of Trimalchio’s banquet in The Satyricon by Petronius:

  Come boy, and pour for me a cup Of old Falernian.

  Fill it up With wine, strong, sparkling, bright, and clear;

  Our host decrees no water here.

  Let dullards drink the Nymph’s pale brew.

  Or again, as the Roman poet, Catullus enthusiastically sang:

  The sluggish thin their blood with dew.

  For such pale stuff we have no use;

  For us the purple grape’s rich juice.

  Begone, ye chilling water sprite;

  Here burning Bacchus rules tonight!

  There are few functioning vineyards in Europe today that were not first planted by the Romans almost two thousand years ago. In France alone, the Romans established all of today’s major wine regions: Rhône valley, 100 BC; Loire valley, AD 100; Burgundy, AD 200; Bordeaux, AD 300; Champagne, AD 400. As the Empire expanded beyond Gaul, the Romans planted vineyards along most of Europe’s river valleys, such as the Duoro, the Tagus, the Moselle, the Rhine, and the Danube.

  The Romans displayed an uncanny ability to recognize the best places to plant vines. Some sites were obvious, like the Rhône valley and the hills of Burgundy, for example. Even planting vines in Bordeaux made sense as a way to supply wine to the armies in Britain and Spain. But what made the Romans think to plant vines on the remote, inhospitable reaches of the upper Douro River in Portugal, or even the steep, almost sheer slopes of Germany’s Moselle Valley?

  With the conquest of the thickly forested Gaul (modern-day France and Spain), oak barrels began to replace the clay amphorae which had been used to store wine since the time of the Egyptians, and it would have been around this time that the effect oak had on wine was first observed. Building upon the original observations and knowledge of the Phoenician writer Mago, the Romans carefully documented and recorded every aspect of winemaking. It seemed that every Latin writer from Cato, Cicero and Virgil, to Horace, Ovid and Pliny, among others, had their own opinions concerning wine, how it should be grown, aged, stored, and drunk. We even have copies of a correspondence dated AD 312 between the Emperor Constantine and the winegrowers of what are today the vineyards of Autun, near Beaune, discussing in the most remarkable detail exactly how to trim the roots of the local vine to maximize both the quality and the quantity of the wine. Emperor Constantine is, of course, famous for converting the Roman Empire to Christianity, and after the fall of Rome, it was the Christian church and monasteries, especially in places like Autun and Beaune, which kept the art of winemaking alive.

  Religion and Wine

  Wine has always been associated with religion. Because of its physical life-cycle, the vine has always been associated with death and rebirth. The Egyptian God Osiris was not only a god of rebirth but was also the God of Wine. In Greek mythology, the God Dionysus, who came from the East, was the God of Wine as well as God of Drama and the mysteries of Rebirth. Both Osiris and Dionysus were ceremonially killed and consumed by their followers in rituals involving the consumption of wine. “Dionysus’ powers are manifold; he gave to men the vine to cure their sorrows,” wrote Euripedes in The Bacchae in 405 BC.

  The Romans renamed the Greek God Dionysus as Bacchus and his cult became one of the most important in the empire. When the early Christians appeared in Rome they were often mistaken for worshippers of Bacchus; not only did both Gods symbolize rebirth, but both were also strongly identified with wine. Dionysus/Bacchus was not only the God of Wine; he was also the god in wine, and so by consuming him, the drinker acquired all the power and mystery of the God: “Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him” (John 6:56).

  Though celebrating wine as a symbol of rebirth as well as energy—the rising sap, the glorious flowering of the fruit, the rich and heavy bunches of grapes—the Greeks, the Romans, and the Christians have also recognized its dark side. Dionysus and Bacchus are both portrayed as beautiful young men but also as cloven-hoofed old Satyrs. Wine can inspire men to poetry and love but also violence and death. The gift of Dionysus can indeed bring joy and innocent g
aiety, but when abused can result in pain and cruel madness. The Greek playwright Euripides best captured the dichotomy in his tragedy, The Bacchae, in which women, joyously celebrating the God with wine and dance, in their frenzy tear apart the male intruder with their bare hands, eat his flesh, and drink his blood. Rituals in Ancient Rome’s private clubs, where the worshippers of Bacchus met to celebrate their Convivium, would involve eating the “flesh” of the God and, with wine, drinking his blood. The drinking of wine as a symbol of the blood of Christ and bread as his flesh is called the Eucharist, and represents the very heart of the traditional Christian ritual.

  Following the fall of the Roman Empire around AD 400 and the invasion of the “barbarians” from the North, much of classical civilization was destroyed. Like reading and writing, the art of winemaking survived the Dark Ages only within the Christian monasteries. It was the monks and the friars who maintained the skills and learning of the Roman tradition.

  Wine had always played an important role in the Jewish religion, and the Bible contains 280 references to wine (as well as forty-nine references to vine, seventy-two to vineyard, forty-nine to wine cup, and fifteen to winepress). Wine grown in what is today Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon, was highly-prized and widely-traded throughout the ancient world, from Babylon to Alexandria. Even during the Middle Ages, wines from the Middle East, Greece, and Cyprus were the most highly-prized and were shipped by the Venetian traders to markets as far away as England and the cities of the Baltic. These wines were white, sweet, high in alcohol, and made in the traditional manner with raisinated grapes—like the Falernian wines which the Romans prized above all others.

  Religion also played an important role in the spread of wine beyond Europe during the later Middle Ages, and the Renaissance when Spanish Conquistadores planted vineyards all over South America and California in order to produce wine with which to perform the Catholic Mass. While the Protestant nations, especially in North America, had a more ambivalent attitude towards wine and alcohol, the spread of Catholicism across the Atlantic was extremely significant in the history of wine.

  Middle Ages

  Burgundy and Monasteries: Because of the importance that wine had always played in the Jewish-Christian tradition, it was primarily the Christian monasteries of Europe that kept the art of winemaking alive after the Fall of Rome. The extensive monasteries of Burgundy were especially important in the history of wine, because over the centuries, the monks maintained detailed records of temperatures, rainfall, soil types, harvests, and grape varieties. As readers of Chaucer, Rabelais and Boccaccio are well aware, the monks were not immune to the pleasures of wine themselves—among other pleasures of the flesh—and the monasteries were often the scenes of depravity inflamed by wine. It was in order to reform the excesses of the Benedictine monasteries that the Cistercian monasteries were established in AD 1112, deeper in the countryside and further away from the temptations of the town, but still surrounded by vineyards. Perhaps the best remaining example of a Cistercian vineyard is the Grand Cru Clos de Vougeot in the Côte de Nuits, which was first enclosed with a stone wall in 1336 and whose buildings can still be visited.

  By the early Middle Ages, the wines of Burgundy had achieved such a reputation that they were sought after in the French royal courts in Paris and on the Loire, as well as in the Pope’s palace in Avignon. Anxious to maintain the high-quality and reputation of his wines, Philippe the Bold, Duke of Burgundy in 1395, made it a hanging offense to make red wine with anything other than Pinot Noir on his territories. Offenders would be hanged from scaffolds out in their vineyards as a visual and swinging reminder to their neighbors. The Gamay grape was permitted further south to provide Beaujolais wine for the thirsty silk workers in Lyon, but for the red wines of Burgundy, only Pinot Noir was permitted.

  Bordeaux and Britain: The development of wine in Bordeaux was influenced not by the Christian monks, but by the English and Dutch traders. The vineyards of Bordeaux and La Rochelle were originally planted to provide wine for the Roman Centurions in England, and this wine trade, between England and the Atlantic coast of France, continued even after the fall of Rome. Part of the reason for the Hundred Years’ War between the kings of France and England was for control of the vineyards of Aquitaine. As the wine trade with Bordeaux increased during the Middle Ages, many English and Dutch merchants established offices and warehouses along the banks of the Gironde outside Bordeaux’s city walls.

  The Police des Vins were a set of codes and business practices set up in the thirteenth and fourteenth century that governed the wine trade within the region of Bordeaux and the use of its port by neighboring areas. The codes were aimed at giving Bordeaux wine a position of dominance over other wine producers in the region and in the English wine market.

  The codes had a particular effect on the winemakers from the inland areas, whose wines could not travel down the Garonne or Dordogne rivers to be sold in Bordeaux until after December 1st. This caused those growers to miss the busiest season for trade when prices were at a premium. This sharply disadvantaged the competition for Bordeaux wine. The wines of the Dordogne region are only now becoming recognized as having ‘Premier Cru’ potential.

  Holding back the sale of wine until later in the year was a serious problem. With the exception of expensive sweet white wines, most wines would not be drinkable for more than a year. Already by the spring, the taste would have grown tart and bitter, and by the summer, when thirst was greatest, the heat would oxidize whatever wine remained. This is why the wine harvest was such a joyous affair and celebrated with such mirth and merrymaking.

  Turgot, the Minister of Finance under Louis XVI, described the effect of this Police des Vins’ arrangement in the eighteenth century:

  “The conduct of this set of rules, most artfully devised to guarantee to the bourgeois of Bordeaux, the owners of the local vineyards, the highest price for their own wines, and to the disadvantage the growers of all the other southern provinces.”

  Even the neighboring wines of the Right Bank, around the town of Libourne, were excluded from the Bordeaux codes just as later they were to be excluded from the classification of 1855. Ironically, in the twenty-first century, some of those Right Bank wines from Pomerol and Saint-Émilion have become among the most sought after in the world.

  The history of the world would probably have evolved completely differently if the English had been able to grow vines on their northern offshore island. They might have stayed contentedly at home and left the rest of the world in peace. Instead, the English were obliged to cross the water and take other people’s wine. For the past few hundred years, the dominant names in the wine industry of Oporto in Portugal, Jerez in Southern Spain, and Bordeaux in SouthWest France are all British. The Hundred Years’ War of the fourteenth century was in many ways a struggle for control of the wine region of Bordeaux. Even though they eventually lost possession of Bordeaux, British merchants remained in the area, controlling the wine industry, with their counting houses, their warehouses and eventually their châteaux. They also made sure that the wines of Bordeaux (like the Sherry from Jerez and the Port wine from Oporto) conformed to English taste.

  Partly because of the difference in taste between the English and French consumers, partly because of soil and climate differences, but mainly because it had to survive a long sea voyage to England, the wine of Bordeaux evolved differently from the wine of Burgundy. The main grape varietal used for making wine in Bordeaux was Cabernet Sauvignon, a grape with a skin so rich in tannins that it needs a long time to mature, and thus ages well. This ability to age well continued to be important long after the end of the Middle Ages, when the British Navy would stock up with Bordeaux wine for the long voyage to South Africa, India, and Australia.

  Sweet White Wine: It should not be forgotten that long before even the Greeks and Romans, the most sought after and expensive wines were white and sweet. Red wines were for everyday drinking, but sweet
white wines were what the wealthy classes drank for pleasure. Not only did the higher levels of alcohol and residual sugar satisfy the palette more than the thin and bitter red wines, but, more significantly, the sugar and alcohol meant that the wines would last much longer than the reds. Unlike the dry red wines from Western Europe which were made from fresh squeezed grapes, the traditional sweet white wines from the Eastern Mediterranean were made from raisinated grapes, which had been left to dry in the sun before fermentation. Drying out the grapes concentrated the sugars and resulted in more body and higher alcohol. Until the late eighteenth century, most red wines had turned to vinegar through oxidization within less than twelve months; it was only sweet white wines which would last a long time, which is why they were so valued by the European royalty. Today, with too much sucrose in our diets, we take sweetness for granted, but in the ancient world, access to sugar or even fresh fruit was limited, and sweetness was rare and greatly valued.

  Even through the Middle Ages and much later, sweet whites still came from the East and were often referred to as Romneys, because these were the wines, like the legendary Falernian wine, which had been most preferred by the Romans. Sailing from Lebanon, Greece, Santorini, Cyprus, and the Levant, Venetian merchant galleys would deliver the wines as far away as London and Hamburg. It’s worth noting that the only significant sweet wine still produced in Europe today using the traditional appassimento, or raisinating process, Recioto della Valpolicella, comes from the shores of Lake Garda, just inland from Venice.

  An indication of the relative value of different wines in fourteenth century can be seen by comparing prices in shillings per gallon of various wines in England in 1362: dry reds from Bordeaux, eight shillings; Rhenish sweet whites, twelve shillings; Romneys from the Levant, sixteen shillings; Malvasia sweet white from Greece, twenty shillings; and, finally, the most expensive of all, Vernaccia from Venice, thirty-two shillings. Vernaccia is, of course, the infamous white wine in which, according to Dante’s Divine Comedy, Pope Martin IV would drown a plateful of Bolsena eels before eating them and then drinking the wine—or maybe just swallowing them all down together.

 

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