BOOK XIV. III. 15-18 



merely white and bluck are the common sorts. But 

 the large-cluster " grapes swell out Hke a breast 

 and the finger-grapes have an exceptionally long 

 berrj^ Also such is the sportiveness of nature that 

 very large grapes have small grapes chnging to 

 them as companions which rival them in sweetness : 

 these are called in Greek ' small-berry ' vines. 

 Some grapes will last all through the winter if the 

 clusters are hung by a string from the ceiling, and 

 others will keep merely in their own natural vigour 

 by being stood in earthenware jars with casks put 

 over them, and packed round with fermenting 

 grape-skins ; others can be given a flavour by 

 smoke, which also adds flavour to w4nes, and the 

 authority of Tiberius Caesar has caused particular 

 glory in regard to the efficiency of smoke in this 

 respect to attach to the forges of Africa ; before his 

 time priority at the table belonged to the Raetic 

 grapes from the territorv of Verona. Moreover, 

 raisins are called ' passi ' * from having ' endured ' the Raisins. 

 sun. Grapes are also preserved in must, and so made 

 drunk with their own wine, and some are made 

 sweeter by being placed in must that has been boiled 

 down ; but others remain on the parent vine to await 

 the coming of a new generation, acquiring a glassy 

 transparency, and the astringency of pitch poured 

 on the footstalk gives them the same durable hard- 

 ness that it gives to wine in casks or jars. A vine has 

 now been discovered that of itself produces a flavour 

 of pitch in the wine : this vine gives celebrity to 

 the territory of Vienne by the varieties of Monte 

 Taburno and of the Sotani and Helvii ; it has become 

 famous only recently and was unknown in the period 

 of the poet Virgil, who died 90 years ago. Add that 



197 



