History of Ancient and Modern Wines. 121 



those grown on dry soils were not drawn off until after the winter 

 solstice. According to Plutarch, wines were most affected by 

 the west wind, and such as remained unchanged by it were pro- 

 nounced likely to keep well. Hence, at Athens and in other parts 

 of Greece, there was a feast in honour of Bacchus, on the eleventh 

 day of the month Anthesterion, when the westerly winds had ge- 

 nerally set in, at which the produce of the preceding vintage was 

 first tasted. In order to allure customers, various tricks appear 

 to have been practised by the ancient wine dealers ; some, for 

 instance, put the new vintage into a cask that had been seasoned 

 with an old and high-flavoured wine ; others placed cheese and 

 nuts in the cellar, that those who entered might be tempted to eat, 

 and thus have their palates blunted before they tasted the wine. 

 The buyer is recommended by Florentinus to taste the wines he 

 proposes to purchase during a north wind, when he will have the 

 fairest chance of forming an accurate judgment of their qualities." 

 —Pp. b?; 59. 



As in all the more southern climates, the grape attains its full 

 maturity, and abounds in saccharine matter, a large proportion 

 of the Greek and Asiatic wines were probably both sweet and 

 strong. Homer seldom mentions wine without some epithet indi- 

 cative of such a quality. That they were also acquainted with 

 sparkling and frothing wines appears from frequent allusions of 

 the poets to those properties. It is stated by Galen that the ge- 

 nerous wines were not fit for drinking before the fifth year: the 

 majority of them wee, however, kept for a much longer period ; 

 the Surrentine wine for instance was raw and harsh until about 

 twenty years old. 



The ancients seenr to have been fully skilled in the rules by 

 which a good and durable wine is to be known ; that grown on 

 high grounds, produced from vines bearing a small quantity of 

 fruit, and having, when recent, a harsh flavour, was deemed most 

 sound and durable. In allusion to this quality Seneca quotes the 

 remark of Ariston, " that he should give the preference to a 

 youth of grave disposition, rather than to one conspicuous for 

 gaiety and engaging manners, for that wine is observed to become 

 best which, when new. is hard and rough ; but that which pleased 

 in the wood was not durable." 



It is probable that the ancients were always in the habit of 

 diluting their wine either with cold or hot water, and accordingly 

 our author devotes a chapter to the methods of diluting and cool- 

 ing ancient wines, justly eulogizing the labour and expense with 

 which they obtained an abundant supply of pure spring-water, in- 

 stead of being content, like modcri\ nations, to fill their cisterns with 

 the muddy and putrid produce of rivers and canals. It is, indeed, 

 somewhat unaccountable that the inhabitants of London so tamely 

 submit to the filth which the water-companies, at enormous charges, 



