Ancient Greek and Roman Wines: The Best Vineyards of Antiquity

A survey of the most celebrated wines of Greek and Roman antiquity reveals a sophisticated wine culture where specific regions and vintages were prized as status symbols. Falernian wine from Mount Falernus (now Monte Massico) in Campania, Italy, was known as 'volcanic gold'—a high-alcohol, amber white wine that could age for 20 years and was reportedly flammable. The Opimian vintage of 121 BC, named after consul Lucius Opimius, had about 16% alcohol. Chian wine from the island of Chios in the Aegean was a sweet, dark 'black wine' called nectar, often adulterated with seawater and stamped with a sphinx for authenticity; it was the first foreign wine served at Roman triumphs. Lesbian wine from Lesbos, associated with poet Sappho, was a fragrant 'potion of the poets' used to perfume cheaper wines. Caecuban wine from the Latium coast was praised by Horace but vanished after Emperor Nero razed its vineyards for a never-built canal. Pramnian wine, a term for dark wines from Icaria, Smyrna, and Lesbos, was so strong it was used for disinfection and as a base for the kykeon cocktail. Surrentine wine from Surrentum (modern Sorrento) was a mild, acidic white considered healthy and prescribed by doctors. Mamertine wine from Messana (Messina) in Sicily was Julius Caesar's personal choice, served at his triumphs, and is still produced today. Pliny the Elder ranked Mamertine fourth best in the world.