I’m doing a presentation on drinking and Plato’s Symposium for my Ancient and Medieval Lit class, and I was wondering if there were any special recipes for wine I could recreate for the presentation?
(I mean, if all else fails, I’ll just get a modern-day bottle of the stuff, but you know… :))
Googling isn’t helping much. Any ideas?
It sounds like Roman wines would be considered practically undrinkable by today’s standards!
If it was me, I’d make an herb-infused wine, using pre-bottled wine of a high acid content. For a white wine: lemon verbena, rose geranium and sweet woodruff and a touch of honey. Put it all in a bottle for a day and serve - well, it would taste best well chilled, but my guess is all but the very richest Romans would have had it room temperature or only moderately chilled by placing it in running water.
For red, choose mulling spices: cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, allspice. Saffron if you’re feeling really extravagant.
Most wines were served watered, so that could cut your cost considerably!
How about mulsum?
Half red wine, half water and a tablespoon of vinegar will give you a fairly accurate table wine by Roman standards. I do not have my cites handy but this is based on years of Roman re-enactments and many toga parties.
When I was a student attending Latin classes, we did a symposium once too, and one of the drinks featured was the mulsum already mentioned. I remember we also added, besides honey, some pine nuts and dates, and we also spiced it, but I don’t remember the specific combination of condiments… Tasted OK; rather sweet, but if you like that, it’s really fine.
[sub]Ummm… You are aware that Plato was an Athenian, not a Roman, right?[/sub]
Just be careful with the hemlock.