BOOK XIV. XXV. 124-126 



wine may be given the scent of pitch and some 

 touches of its piquant flavour. It is thought that a 

 more effective way of doing this is by means of raw 

 flower of resin, this giving briskness to the smooth 

 quaUty of the wine, while on the other hand resin- 

 juice ^ is believed to mitigate the excessive harshness 

 of a wine and to conquer its asperity, or in the case 

 of a thin, smooth, flat wine to add a touch of asperity 

 — this is especially done with the musts of Liguria and 

 the locahties on the border of the river Po. The 

 beneficial employment of resin-juice is adjusted in 

 this way : a larger quantity of juice is put into strong, 

 fiery wines, and it is used more sparingly with thin, 

 flat ones. Some people advise using both resin- 

 juice and pitch to season must ; and in fact must has 

 a certain pitchy quaHty and in some districts the 

 fault of must is that it ferments a second time of its 

 own accord, a disaster that destroys its flavour ; this 

 Hquor is given the name of vappa, which is also applied 

 as a term of opprobrium to human beings when their 

 spirit has deteriorated. For the tartness of vinegar 

 possesses a valuable quality useful for important 

 purposes, and without which it is impossible to Uve in 

 comparative comfort. For the rest, so much atten- 

 tion is given to the treatment of wines that in some 

 places ashes are employed, as is gypsum elsewhere, 

 and the methods that we have specified, for the pur- § 120. 

 pose of improving their condition ; but preference is 

 given to ashes obtained from vine-clippings or from 

 oakwood. Also it is recommended that sea-water 

 should be used for this purpose that has been obtained 

 a long way out at sea at the spring equinox and then 

 kept in store, or at all events that it should be taken 

 up during the night at the time of the solstice and 



269 



