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The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 (of 6) cover

The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 (of 6)

Chapter 249: CHAP. 12. (10.)—THREE VARIETIES OF SECOND-RATE WINE.
By the Elder Pliny
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The work assembles systematic observations on animals, insects, and trees, combining natural history with practical notes. It surveys insect forms and habits, including bees, silk‑producing worms, spiders, and parasitic species, and discusses reproduction, classification, diseases, and useful products like honey and silk. It then examines animal anatomy in detail, limb by limb and organ by organ, comparing organs, vital functions, and bodily peculiarities across species. Later sections catalogue trees and exotic plants, describing aromatic gums, spices, frankincense, myrrh, and methods for producing and testing unguents and perfumes, and noting their uses and regions of origin.

CHAP. 12. (10.)—THREE VARIETIES OF SECOND-RATE WINE.

Those cannot properly be termed wines, which by the Greeks are known under the name of “deuteria,”1377 and to which, in common with Cato, we in Italy give the name of “lora,”1378 being made from the husks of grapes steeped in water. Still, however, this beverage is reckoned as making one of the “labourers’”1379 wines. There are three varieties of it: the first1380 is made in the following manner:—After the must is drawn off, one-tenth of its amount in water is added to the husks, which are then left to soak a day and a night, and then are again subjected to pressure. A second kind, that which the Greeks are in the habit of making, is prepared by adding one-third in water of the quantity of must that has been drawn off, and after submitting the pulp to pressure, the result is reduced by boiling to one-third of its original quantity. A third kind, again, is pressed out from the wine-lees; Cato gives it the name of “fæcatum.”1381 None of these beverages, however, will keep for more than a single year.