culture discovery

But scientists had not known precisely how Roman wines tasted – that is, until a team from Ghent University in Belgium recreated millennia-old production techniques and sipped the results.

Dr Dimitri Van Limbergen, lead author of the wine study, said: “Ancient wines made from white grapes and made according to techniques we discuss are bound to have tasted oxidative, with complex aromas of toasted bread, dried fruits, roasted nuts, green tea, and with a very dry and sappy mouth feeling.”

Georgian wines are made in qvevri (left), while the ancient Romans (and the research team) used dolia

Wikimedia Commons

In ancient Rome, a dolium – a large round ceramic pot with a wide opening – would be filled with grapes and buried in the ground, where natural yeast on the grape skins would start to ferment the sugars in the fruit, producing alcohol.

CO2 would be allowed to escape the dolium, then it would be sealed, allowing the grapes to get to work.

That’s precisely the process the research team from Ghent used in their study; it may seem low-tech, but burying the dolia underground gave the scientists acute control over temperature, humidity and acidity, meaning they could decide on their wine’s eventual flavour.

It’s a similar process to traditional wine-making practices in Georgia – and while the former Soviet republic may not cross many people’s minds as a wine hotspot, it’s where humans first made the drink over 8,000 years ago

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Ancient Romans worshipped the wine god Bacchus

Pexels/paologallophoto

Source

https://www.gbnews.com/news/world/roman-empire-wine-spicy-culture-discovery