Hi everyone
I’m new to the straight dope forums, but from what I see there’s a lot of intelligent people on here, so hopefully I’m in luck.
Well I’ve been reading about ancient wine making techniques. It seems that even these days, the Georgian’s are brewing fantastic wine in Kvevri, which is almost identical to a Roman Dolium. And of course the Georgians use of this dates to before the Greco-Roman use.
It seems the Romans seemed to follow the same procedure as the Georgians in terms of production. They made their wine in Dolia buried in the ground in the same fashion as Kvevri. Then they sealed the lid after primary fermentation. They also used to line the Amphorae with pitch or beeswax.
And yet, whilst this very simple traditional technique is producing consistently good wine without sulfites or with very little sulfites today in Georgia, the Romans wine was inconsistent and often sour. They often had to sweeten it with other things.
Did the wine come out of the dolium sour, or was it just during transportation and storage in Amphorae?
I am very much interested in reviving that myself on a small scale here in England, so I actually want to understand what the Romans did wrong.
My WAG: The number of vineyards near Rome was capped by an emperor because he was concerned that too many wheat farmers would switch to wine production and cause bread shortages. This led to high prices for the best wines. Third and fourth pressings of the grapes would produce sour, tannic wines which would benefit from sweeteners. After a while people got a taste for those types of drink and they keep producing those types. Many cocktails were invented to mask the bad taste of prohibition era liquors but are still consumed today.
To pile a vague recollection on your WAG: My recollection is that grain wasn’t primarily coming from Rome’s immediate environs. Once they had Egypt, I believe that was a major breadbasket. Of course, earlier in the republic and kingdom, grain would’ve come from nearer to home.
In any event, I wonder if there’s any particular answer to this beyond “the Roman grapes/soil/growing conditions were a bit crap as compared to the Georgian”.