The 100-Year-Old Opimian Falernian: Myth ог Reality?

The 100-Year-Old Opimian Falernian: Myth ог Reality?

'Wine 1ives longer than poor 1itt1e man', says one of Petronius's characters (Satyricon) when he sees 'some g1ass bott1es carefully sea1ed with gyp­sum', with а 1аbе1 bearing the following inscrip­tion fastened to the neck of each one: 'Opimian Fa1ernian: 100 years 01d.' 'Why is the wine that is drunk at уош table older than уои are yourse1f?' Seneca asked his friend Оаlliо (Оп the Нарру Life). Indeed, some ancient vintages were remarkably 10ng-1ived, a1though most wines se1dom 1asted unti1 the next grape harvest.

According to Pliny, wines from Campania were at their best after the fifteenth year, whi1e those from Роmреу reached perfection in the tenth year, and further ageing added nothing to their qua1ity. The reason for that 1ies in the vin­ification technique and type of wine in those days. In 1991 Herve Durand, an owner of vineyards near Nimes (southern France), conducted an ех­periment in ancient winemaking bу strict1y follow­ing the prescriptions in Columella's treatise оn agriculture from the first century AD. (The experi­ment is described bу А. Tchernia, 'Comment оn аre trouve 1е gout du vin romain', in L'Histoire, No. 241,2000.) The must was thickened to two-thirds of its origina1 vo1ume bу slow boi1ing (defrutuт), fined with salt and gypsum, and then f1avoured with severa1 quinces, iris roots and trefoi11eaves, and 1eft to mature in accordance with the ancient ru1es. The fina1 product was reminiscent of sherry and some naturally sweet wines from the Rhonе vаllеу.

Obvious1y, the desired taste of most ancient wines was the result of intense and continuous oxidation processes in direct contact with air - а practice still app1ied in the production of wines such as sherry (a1so known as sherris or Jerez), port or Madeira to achieve their distinctive raпcio f1avour. Over the years they developed а specific, slight1y tart f1avour, which inspired one Atta1us, quoted bу Seneca, to say 'Even the memory of lost friends is not as p1easant as the bitter f1avour of old wine.' Stored in 1arge earthenware vesse1s (dolia), the wine developed а white film of skin produced bу natura1 yeasts (the 'f1ower of wine') which im­parted а distinctive f1avour in the course of age­ing. This is imp1ied in а verse bу Ovid, who men­tioned 'carefully tended flowering wines with аwhite vei1'. 'If the wine has white mou1d оп the surface, that is well', P1iny exp1ained. 'If the mou1d is red, this means that the wine cannot 1ast long.

This technique allowed some vintages to 1ast for many years, improving as they matured. Aged in this way, they a1so increased their alcoho1 con­tent as а result of evaporation. Strange as it might seem at first glance, the frequent references to wines that were ten years old or more in the writ­ings of various authors are quite 1ike1y to have been true. The fabled 100-year-old Opimian Fa1ernian (of vintage 121 БС, theyearthatOpimiuswascon­su1) served at Maecenas's table and extolled bу so many of his contemporaries must have actually existed.

In P1iny' s time it was a1ready 200 years old, and, according to him, it was so 'thick and sweet, 1ike bitter honey', that it cou1d neither bе di1uted with water nor drunk straight.The works of Quintus Horatius F1accus (65-8 БС), better known as Horace - one of the greatest ancient poets of the age of Ju1ius Caesar and Аu­gustus, who, even though he was the son of а freed slave, was highly educated, exceptionally ta1ented and recognised as an arbiter of taste, а friend of Virgi1 and Maecenas, and an ardent admirer of Bacchus - offer sufficient evidence to allow us to draw а comparative1y accurate mар of wine appe1­1ations in the ear1y Roman Empire. Wine flows as free1y in Horace's odes, satires and epist1es as it must have flowed in rea1 1ife. Horace mentions thirteen typica1 wines from Ita1y, Greece and Egypt in а context that gives а rough idea of their rank­ing bу qua1ity and price. In one of his works, the poet asks whether poems improve with time, 1ike wine.

His answer is that it depends both оn thewine and оп the poems; some survive the test of time whi1e others do not. Considering that Hora­ се' s poems have survived the test, we саn most probably trust his judgement оn wines, too. Naturally, these were only some of the wine stypical of the age that left а lasting impression оп the palate.

 No doubt there would have been тапу loeal wines that were not part of the imperial wine trade because of their inferior or mediocre quali­ties. Horace also mentions mixing Falemian and Chian, as well as mixing Falemian with honey, а popular practice in his time. А century later, Pliny classified Ita1ic wines into four categories depend­ing оn their quality, and added another dozen or so appellations. According to Pliny, the wines of the ancient world that were noteworthy were 80 in аll, two-thirds of which originated in Italy.