“Who loves not wine, women and song; remains a fool his whole life long” #

Bacchus the Roman God of Wine

Wine, Women and Song is a fine example of a tripartite motto originating in ancient times. It is when three words are used to express one idea, in this case a warning about the imminent danger of becoming a fool for those whose life was spent in the pursuit of pleasure. Wine, Women and Song (Wein, Weib und Gesang) also became a choral waltz written by Johann Strauss II for the Vienna Men’s Choral Association so-called Fool’s Evening held on the 2nd February 1869.

Wine was made before history was recorded and for thousands of years has evoked high spirits, given comfort and pleasure, as well as made fools of many different people in many different countries and cultures.

And in the autumn, when you gather the grapes of your vineyards for the winepress, say in your heart; “I too am a vineyard, and my fruit shall be gathered for the winepress, And like new wine I shall be kept in eternal vessels. And in winter, when you draw the wine, let there be in your heart a song for each cup; And let there be in the song a remembrance for the autumn days, and for the vineyard, and for the winepress*

In his witty and erudite study of antiquity’s larder, first published in 1853 The Pantropheon (History of Food and its Preparation in Ancient Times), renowned flamboyant French Chef Alexis Benoit Soyer (1810 – 1858) used Jean Anthelme Brillat Savarin’s (1755-1826) quote , Tell me what thou eatest and I will tell thee who thou art’. The Pantropheon was a cornucopia of food data dealing with the preparation of food for the table in classical antiquity. In it Soyer calls upon the ancient Greeks, Romans, Assyrians, Egyptians and Jewish peoples to reveal themselves and their traditional ways of eating and drinking. It was made available to an even wider public than ever before because of the invention in 1843 of the rotary printing press by Richard Hoe in America, which allowed millions of copies of a page to be printed in a single day.

Reform Club, London

Alexis Benoit Soyer (1810 – 1858)  was considered, in his time a gastronomic genius. Quite simply it seems he was the rage of stylish, mid nineteenth century England. He devoted his vast energies and resources to serving both the rich and poor. In 1846 he assisted architect Charles Barry to design the kitchens at London’s Reform Club in Pall Mall when it was founded and he was its celebrated chef for twelve years. However, on the opposite side of the coin if you like, he also designed and organized ‘soup kitchens’ during the Irish famine of the late 1840’s providing soldiers with nourishing food during the Crimean War in 1855. This was achieved in collaboration with nursing luminary Florence Nightingale and Soyer gave of his talents and money to aid social profit causes for all of his life.  Soyer describes wine as that ‘grateful drink’ one that ‘draws the ties of friendship closer’ and one that all ‘honest people, all generous souls’ are eager to taste.

Gates of Ancient Ninevah

In The Pantropheon he recorded that Livia, consort of Roman Emperor Augustus in the first century said when she was 82 years of age that she was indebted to Bacchus, the God of Wine for her long existence. But what of wine…what do we know about its evolution in terms of our cultural growth and continuing passion for it today…

…Amethyst it bore as its fruit,
Grape vine was trellised, good to behold,
Lapis Lazuli it bore as grape clusters,
Fruit it bore, magnificent to look upon.

If we are talking poetry in relation to wine then The Epic of Gilgamish is one of the oldest poems in the world, which mentions it. From Sumeria it dates from eighteen centuries BCE (Before the Christ event). Modern archaeologists have proved a great deal of relevance to ancient sites and cultural practices in its prose.

Cup Bearer from Persepolis

The poem survived because it was recorded on ceramic material, rediscovered between 1845 – 1851 by British archaeologist Austen Henry Layard 1817 –1894. A Victorian gentleman, diplomat, politician, art connoisseur and man of letters, Lanyard was many things but not what we would call a professional archaeologist. Layard and his Turkish colleague Hormuzd Rassam [1826-1910] discovered thousands of fragments of broken clay tablets, while excavating on the east bank of the Tigris River in modern day Iraq at the site of the ancient city of Ninevah. Capital of the Assyrian Empire, Ninevah was an important city in Persia in ancient times. It occupied a central position on the great highway between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, where east met the west.

Siduri, courtesy of Winemakers Adam & Dianna at Siduri Winery, Santa Rosa California

The fragments were shipped to England where pioneering English Assyriologist George Smith sorted classified and rejoined them. Smith discovered the narrative that filled twelve tablets was a poem, which recorded the collective wisdom of Gilgamesh historical King of Uruk [2750 -2500 BCE] who it is said saw everything, learned everything and understood everything. The text refers to a woman named Siduri as the ‘maker of the wine’ and Enkidu, a wild man of the woods, who is given his first experience of civilisation by a temple woman, or harlot, who shows ‘him human manners and gives him wine to drink’.

We are told he ‘drank seven times, his thoughts wandered and he became hilarious his heart full of joy as his face shone’… a condition many have had after drinking wine. The Persians in antiquity enjoyed the luxury and enchantments of the table. It was from Persia during the reign of their heroic King Jemsheed in the C6 BCE that a ‘poetic’ story about wine emerged. 

“It seems he was fond of eating grapes and kept vast quantities in jars so he would always have a ready supply. It is reputed he found a batch no longer sweet and labelled it poisonous. A woman of his harem, distraught with nervous headaches, desired to end her life so drank of the juice in the jar and was so overpowered she fell into a heavy sleep”

Not surprisingly after a long deep sleep our lady of the harem awoke refreshed and revealed all to Jemsheed, who then distributed the drink to his courtiers. In light of this story is perhaps feasible for us to presume grapes kept overlong in ceramic storage bowls, in the right conditions of temperature would have fermented… and that the first style of wine could have been fermented from raisins, grapes dried in the sun and stored. If this is so they would have produced a very tasty wine, something in the manner of a Tokay.

Rhyton, Achaemenid period 500 –330 BCE, Persia

Bucchero ware drinking-cup (kantharos) Etruscan, about 600 BC Inscribed with the owner's name courtesy British Museum, London

Our poet would have enjoyed drinking it from the Kantharos,  a deep drinking cup, which had a vase like bowl usually mounted on a slender stem with twin handles that curved up above the rim of the bowl.

Originating with the Etruscans in Italy in the seventh and sixth centuries BC, drinking cups of this kind were exported all over the Mediterranean and the form was also adopted by the Greeks (British Museum).

The other style of drinking vessel in ancient times was a Rhyton or drinking horn, such as this example of fine craftsmanship. In copper, silver and gold this example dates from the Achaemenid period of the Persian Empire 500 –330 BCE. Originally carved in the form of a bull’s horn, wine poured in at the top came out through a narrow stream between the griffin’s legs and poured into a wine cup or directly into the mouth.

The first book of the Bible, Genesis relates how Noah was a man of the soil, the first to plant a vineyard, drink the wine and become drunk. The grape vine was one of the first plants domesticated, although its nature required certain conditions of geography and climate for it to grow and produce its fabulous fruit.

Vitis Vinifera

There is an amusing Jewish legend recorded in Brewster’s Phrases and Fables that states the devil buried a lion, lamb and a hog at the foot of the first vine planted by Noah and that hence, we receive from wine, ferocity, mildness or, wallowing in the mire, or gutter as we would say …and there is also a biblical injunction that says ‘a little wine maketh glad the heart’. Modern research has revealed that wine, sensibly taken, may be beneficial to our health and well being. I don’t know about you but that’s the one I would prefer to believe when imbibing.

We would not have wine without the Vitis Vinifera, the famous vine of Europe and the Middle East. It emerged in the area around the Black Sea during the Quaternary, the period that runs from about a million years ago and includes the Upper Palaeolithic period, which ended about 8000 BCE. The Vitis Vinifera’s stock provided the basis for most historical wine.

Wine Jar Hajji-Firuz courtesy Universy of Pennsylvania Museum

Nearly all primitive tribes it seems developed some sort of intoxicant to help them face the harsher realities of life. Poppy juice, fungi and dried flowers of cactus are among such sources. However, none can compare in economic or social importance than alcohol, which is considered the most pleasant of all the benign poisons we consume.

Wine making developed, alongside a variety of food processing techniques, made possible when nomadic groups of peoples began permanent settlements. In Hajji Firuz in Iran, one Neolithic house dating from 5400-5000 B.C has yielded six wine jars with a residue of wine still in them.

In the ancient capital at Thebes in the Valley of Nobles archaeological remains bear testimony to Egyptian civilisation at its height. Wall paintings date from 1500 years before Christ and relate various stories about grapes and vines including men being carried from a drinking party. One graphically depicts a women being ill after consuming far too much wine. In another vines trained on horizontal trellises or pergolas were set into formalised gardens that were planted with figs, pomegranates and sycamores.

Treading the Grapes in Thebes, Ancient capital of Egypt

In Egypt as time progressed winemaking techniques advanced. The treading of the grapes took place in large tanks supported by an elaborate structure of poles with ropes or straps for the men to hold onto while they sought purchase with their feet. A light roof sheltered them from the heat of the sun while they worked. The grape vine served a triple purpose; it gave shade, provided food and drink and, was highly decorative.

Ancient Egyptian Wine Jar with Lid

In King Tutankhamun’s tomb found in 1922 by Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings in the food provided for his afterlife some grapes had been kept for eating; the rest made into wine. Wine jars were filled and stoppered with mud on a pad, or a wad of palm wood fibres. They were sealed, the contents labelled, some of which have remained intact for archaeologists to interpret. These include the royal seals of Tutankhamun. Because of the excellent preservation of the objects in his tomb we know that his ‘wine list’ contained a choice of some thirty varieties; the jars still labeled with wine, year, vineyard and vintner.

Dionysus Greek god of wine, agriculture, and fertility of nature from Les Dieux Antiques, nouvelle mythologie illustrée. Paris, 1888

The wine of the grape became a medium through which alcohol could be enjoyed in a air of conviviality and companionship. In primitive, and later Christian tribes, wine also became an instrument of religious experience, a practice that continues unabated to the present day but more on that later. It was the rise of civilisations around the Aegean and Mediterranean that first gave a European meaning to the drinking of wine.

The introduction of viticulture to ancient Greece is both prehistoric and a subject for conjecture. The ancient Greeks took grape growing and wine making seriously.  Six centuries before Christ there were vineyards spread all over Attica, where the pattern of life was, to some extent shaped by its proximity to the city of Athens. By the seventh century before Christ vineyards were also all over Arcadia,  the region of Greece in the Peloponnesus, which takes its name from the mythological character Arcas.

Silenus with the infant Dionysus

On On Run, dance, delirious, possessed!
Dionysus comes to his own;
Bring from the Phrygian hills to the broad streets god, child of a god,
Spirit of revel and rapture, Dionysus

Dionysus was the ancient Greek god of wild and fertile nature, of the vine and wine and a great many festivals grew up around his cult. As a child he was fed the wine, he was reputed to have invented from a cornucopia, or horn of plenty. Raised in a cave on Mount Nysa, as a baby Dionysus was tutored by Silenus a rural god whose statue of the two of them is attributed to one of the most famous sculptors of his day, Lysippus. Dionysus is said to have had many adventures, including introducing viniculture to India. However, it was mostly because of the popularity of wine based worship, that he grew in stature to become one of the ruling Greek Olympian Gods seated at the right hand of his father Zeus, the father of Gods and Men

The bleating lambs, the ivy leaf, the vat,
Full-bosomed matrons hurrying to the farm,
The tipsy maid, the drained and emptied flask,
And many other blessing

Dionysus and his followers on a Sacrcophagus Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Greek wine drinking party, or Symposium had an etiquette that had, over time been perfected to a fine art form. Music was provided by flute-girls, garlands of flowers were worn and there were competitions for songs and riddles.  It was a night when men of culture, philosophers and scholars held elevated discussions and enjoyed the charms of male friendship. The cost of getting together, talking and drinking was shared by all those who attended.

The ideal Symposium was also a framework for a debate on love, especially ‘Platonic love’ which referred to an argument for the supremacy of non-sexual love between people of like minds what we would call today, ‘soul mates’. However it is a fact the very same ‘flute girls’ who played the music, were also called upon to exercise their talents in other ways for men of power and influence.

Of the gay danseuse of ripened charms
I’ve told you; hear me, pray,
Of the budding flute-girl who saps the strength of the sailor man for pay’

Dionysus painting on the interior of a Kylix

Kylix by the Euergides Painter, courtesy British Museum

The most usual style of wine drinking cup was a Kylix, a shallow two-handled bowl on a short stem whose beauty of shape was enhanced by the wonderful art of the vase painters. One of the great masterpieces of black figure painting is by Exekias is a famous kylix, which depicts Dionysus on a ship with Pirates, who had tried to abduct him. They were all transformed into dolphins and he made vine leaves spring from the mast to act as sails.

Dionysus was the personification of man’s earthly passions, the God of plant life whose vitality was renewed each spring.  He was linked to fertilisation, the life cycle and the mysterious and the potent forces underlying both life and death and that meant he also became a symbol for immortality.

Wine was mixed with water, one part to three, in a Crater, the large vessel at the back and it was used by the Greeks for that purpose; dilution with water was not only necessary but a much needed economy to make wine last from one harvest to another.

Gluttony, sottishness and stupefaction were considered ‘madness’ to an educated Greek as they dulled and distorted an active, appreciating mind and luxury was an extravagance worthy of ridicule, rather than admiration.

Some of the most exquisite craftsmanship of the Hellenistic age went into elaborate gold work now associated with luxury. This detail is from a gilded Crater was found at Derveni in Thessalonica depicts Dionysus seated under a sinuously trailing vine.

Ancient Greeks loved the delights of life and the pleasure considered the greatest and the expense the least.  This does not mean they would get carried away. The dignity of life and value of an individual lay in the exercise of his consciousness and diminishing this exercise would have meant diminishing the individual himself. A man’s intellectual and moral make up demanded a very high personal standard of attitude, stance and behaviour, or we could say his words, deeds and actions needed to be in harmony with each other.

Nobody would take mulled claret;
Everybody chose, you know,
Wine that had been ‘welled’ or mingled not with water but with snow

It was expensive, but snow was used in hot weather to cool wine, or for economy, the wine was chilled by lowering it down a well

If I’m no fool, Dad’s put us down the well, like wine to cool

Bacchus Roman God of Wine, Musée du Louvre

At Imperial Rome the centurion’s staff of office was the sapling of a grape vine. During the first century, inspired by descriptions of Dionysian worship, a cult spread among the youth of Rome. The festivals of Bacchus, the Roman God of Wine, or Bacchanalia as they were called, were scenes of drunken revelry. According to that great documenter of Roman times, Titus Livius (59 BC – AD 17) or Livy, these occasions concealed aspects far more menacing than drunkenness and sexual promiscuity; he believed that they threatened total anarchy and served as a disguise for more horrendous crimes. There were rumours of human sacrifice and he suggested they were a sign that ordinary people had needs that state religion could not provide. This was well recognised by some of those in authority, who were struggling to prevent such rites taking place. By way of contrast the Roman banquet itself was a sign of civility,  the perfect occasion for a man to affirm his accomplishments and show off to his peers.

The Emperors of Rome kept no court, although most lived in a ‘palace’ on the Palatine Hill. The exception was Emperor Augustus in the first century. He lived, like his nobles, in a private villa with only slaves and freed men for company. When night came the Emperor dined with senators and others whose company he relished, as at table was one of the few places he felt he could relax. Reclining on a couch he partook of braised or roasted bloodless meat served sugared while drinking a wine with a flavour something like marsala, diluted with water. Early in the dinner they ate without drinking. Later they drank without eating. ‘Make it stronger’, the suffering erotic poet ordered his cup bearer, and the trickiest part of the evening and longest, was set aside for serious drinking. More than a feast, the banquet was also a festival with each man expected to hold his own. Guests expressed their views on general topics and noble subjects or give summaries of their lives and between dishes music, dancing and singing with professional musicians took place.

In the first century in Campania vines produced abundantly and the volcanic soil of the Bay of Naples brought forth some of the best wines of the Roman Empire. Spain and Gaul were its only main rivals, the wines of the south considered generally better than those of Central Italy, which were not greeted in Rome with great enthusiasm.

Vineyard in Tusca

Those produced in Tuscany were less favourable, a direct contrast to today where it is now considered one of the best wine producing regions. Perhaps it was a matter of ‘taste’ or the education of the palette that can only occur after consistent exposure to many different varietals. It was about the middle of the second century that wine growing in Italy became really important.The Romans were the first people to mature wine on anything approaching a modern scale.

Latin writers speak of wines with years of age.  Most however would have been categorised as vin ordinaire and drunk within the year after vintaging. A Roman legionary left a message stating ‘that while he lived he drank with a good heart and recommended his friends follow his example’.

Romans Harvesting Grapes from a Mural at Pompeii

The Romans compiled manuals of instruction dealing with the growing of vines and making of wine and they also provided a picture of Roman viticulture more complete than any other ancient peoples. The low vineyard was where the vine was un-staked and its branches sprawled over the ground. This meant ripening grapes were left to lie on the earth or raised off the surface by means of short props. It was simple and economical but sharing the grapes with foxes necessitated change. The high vineyard developed and vines grown up tall trees and looped from tree to tree like garlands. Elms and poplars, or willows were twined and hung with vines, a usual sight for poets.

Storing Wine in Ceramic Amphora

Jesus the Christ, Mosaics at Ravenna

‘Ash stakes of the forked uprights
Upon whose strength
your vines can mount and be trained to clamber
Up the high storied elm trees’

Following the conversion in the third century of Roman Emperor Constantine to Christianity,  the vine became an important metaphor for that of Jesus the Christ himself. He was the central root stock onto which all Christians, in their life of faith and spiritual growth, were grafted. It was used decoratively in wall painting and Byzantine mosaics,  to reinforce the message of St John’s Gospel -  ‘I am the true vine.

Trade in wine at this time was highly individualistic,  operated by merchants who acted singly, or in a small family partnership. Each ‘firm’ had its own ship to freight wine, along with other desirable goods, all over the Mediterranean and Aegean areas. Often a family villa had a wine shop attached to it. Called a Taberna, it also sold food and you could buy your wine at the door, just like you can at boutique wineries today all over Australia.

There were some entrepreneurial merchants who expanded to have two or three ships , although they were generally an exception to the rule. There appears to have been no dominating network of middlemen, the enterprise of the individual remained the active factor; wine had become essential to the diet for everyone and, in the better and more productive districts reasonably good wine was, well like now both plentiful and cheap.

Ancient Grape Vines in Campania

Historians, archaeologists and scholars are still endeavouring to grasp the enormity of change in Europe between the fourth and sixth centuries. Migration, expanding settlements and nomadic warring tribes, whose culture was considered barbaric overran what was left of the Roman Empire in Europe, Gaul and Britain.

Every part of the former Roman world was vulnerable and the target of  predators. During these so-called ‘dark ages’ in Britain the Scotti, or Irish were the peoples who came from the west, the Picts came from the north, in the area we now know as Scotland. From the east you had the peoples of the north German coastlands known as Angles, Saxons and Jutes.

Over on the European continent, Burgundians, Ostrogoths, Huns, Goths, Visigoths and Vandals, among others, all came, saw and conquered. An interesting aspect of all of this change was that as a general rule many of the different tribes converted to some form of Christianity, either Arian or Catholic.

The modern imagination has long been captivated by the very European idea of a merry medieval monk, well fed, content and gossiping or carousing at the refectory table. So much did he drink that his skin became impregnated with wine, his body immune from corruption

Never did a day or night go by,
But it found him wine soaked and wavering

Welsh churchman Giraldus Cambrensis noted acidly, when he dined with monks at Canterbury, that the refectory table carried ‘wine, mead, mulberry juice and other strong drink in abundance’. The spread of monastic culture and establishment of community religious houses certainly assisted wine evolution and at the same time added to the legends about the clergy and wine drinking. Consider the fate of the Abbot Piro of Caldey Island who, while stumbling about the monastery one night the worse for drink fell down a well and died. He had clearly not followed St. Benedict’s rule which in Chapter 40 said: ‘We do, indeed, read that wine is no drink for monks; but since nowadays monks cannot be persuaded of this, let us at least agree upon this, to drink temperately and not to satiety; for wine maketh even the wise to fall away. But when the circumstances of the place are such that the aforesaid measure cannot be had, but much less or even one at all, then let the monks who dwell there bless God and not murmur.

John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, Duke of Aquitaine entertaining the King of Portugal

It would be easy to assume the spread of vineyards went hand in hand with the building of Christian churches; if there was a church there was a mass and wine was a necessary element. Perhaps it would be fairer for us today to assume that a combination of monasticism and private enterprise together ensured that viticulture’s traditions were well preserved during difficult times. Nineteenth century historian James Campbell in his thesis on the Elements in the background to the Life of St. Cuthbert and his early Cult suggests late seventh and eighth century monasteries had many of the aspects of a special kind of nobleman’s club. This was an earthly reality of early medieval monasticism. While the lives of monks involved personal sacrifice and rigorous religious discipline, the environment of monasteries was not necessarily as spartan as one might suppose.

Yizhar Hirschfeld, a scholar carrying out research on monastery sites today suggests the standard of living was far higher than that of most people in the Byzantine Empire. Mixing wine with water in the chalice during the Eucharist, or great thanksgiving of the Christian faith is pre-supposed. The Book of Common Prayer in 1549 directed continuance of its usage, although it seemingly went out of favour again by 1552 to be revived during the nineteenth century by Anglo Catholics following the lead of the Oxford Movement (1833 – 1845). Its main aim was to restore the principles of High Church to the Church in England, which emphasized its historical continuity as a branch of the Catholic faith.

Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry - October

The Oxford Movement upheld ‘high’ conceptions of the rights of the monarchy, episcopacy and nature of the sacraments. It has been a matter of ongoing dispute between different factions of the Church, and still is today around the world, where some branches of the Christian faith substitute grape juice for wine. The development of viticulture was less widespread in the area we now know as France, even though there were vineyards at Bordeaux from the first century they were never really famous under the Roman Empire. Vines were introduced into that gateway to the South, Provence by the ancient Greeks and were extensively cultivated by the Romans and the Avignon Papacy during the period from 1309 to 1378 during which seven Popes resided in Avignon.

Provence is a vital cultural and commercial link between northern and southern Europe. It was a key area of the Mediterranean world in ancient times because of its position at the foot of the great thoroughfare of the Rhone valley. It was also overrun by the Normans, Goths, Visigoths, Moors and other barbarian tribes. However they were not hostile to viticulture.  What we do know is that most of the vineyard areas of Europe were maintained, and even expanded under their influence.

By the late sixth century the forests of Burgundy were being cleared, vineyards fenced and planted with grape varieties such as Gevrey, Vosne, Beaune and Aloxe and it was those vines that would provide a foundation for modern vintners. Private enterprise was a huge contributing factor in the popularising of wine during the Middle Ages. Perhaps it would be fairer for us today to assume that a combination of monasticism and private enterprise together ensured that viticulture’s traditions were well preserved during difficult times.

Dining in Style with the Duc du Berry

Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry - September

Jean, Duc de Berry was a son, brother and uncle of the Kings of France. He was also an outstanding patron of the arts and loved beautiful books.

In his sumptuously illustrated Book of Hours, one of the most popular style of devotional books of the later Middle Ages, the illuminated images record representations of the months.

September is the month of the grape harvest where in the Angevin vineyard below the Chateau de Saumur aproned women and young men pick the purple coloured clusters of grapes.

The standard of food at the court of Henry II (1154-1189) of France was renowned for its poor quality. In fact it was described as atrocious, the tables piled high with putrid food and the wine not reported to not much better. Peter of Blois described the wine as being so full of dregs the noblemen were compelled to close their eyes and filter it through their teeth. A pretty horrible prospect. He concluded that the only way courtiers kept healthy was through vigorous exercise in the fresh air so that many more of them did not die of food poisoning. 

Eating in Community in Tudor Times

During the Tudor period in England Henry VII (1485-1509) was most anxious to be an hospitable and impressive host. The regulations recorded in his household book ensured that the butler and keeper of the spicery were warned in advance if anyone was going to stay for the voidee, which was the final hospitality offered before the house was ‘emptied’ of its guests. The drink offered was named Hippocras for the so called ‘Father of medicine. Fourth century BCE Greek physician Hippocrates believed spices were medicinal and aided digestion. He mixed cinnamon, ginger, galingale, cloves, cardamom, pepper and aniseed together with sometimes sugar and dried fruit and this concoction was added to wine, which was left in a warm place overnight and then filtered before serving. During the latter stage of the Middle Ages the development of a vineyard, whose vines were tied to upright stakes and kept to a height of about 4’ made its appearance.  The spread of knowledge and advice was slow and it is not until the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries in Europe that we have clearer documented evidence of technical improvement in viticulture.

Dragon-Stem Goblet - Façon de Venise, Venice, 17th century

This came about with a growing stream of commerce, fed in no small measure by the energy and enterprise of the Genoese, Tuscans and Venetians. The latter were for centuries the masters of glass manufacture, producing their celebrated glass on the Island of Murano in the Venetian lagoon. From the 12th century onward Venetian glass had grown in prestige and many countries copied the shape and form of their glasses because, as a selling line, the so called á la facon de Venise (Venetian fashon) was much in demand.

One representative of Italian commerce Francesco di Marco Datini, a merchant of Prato in Tuscany, wrote in his great ledger ‘In the name of God and of profit”. This was at a time when the now steady traffic of wine up and down the Atlantic coasts of Europe expanded dramatically. With the increase in trade came a gradual increase in luxury and from the fifteenth to the seventeen centuries in Europe as the spiritual and physical frontiers of the known world expanded so did luxuriant living become an established way of life. Clothes were made of sumptuous textiles, wigs were in high demand and banqueting was important aspect of status.. The battle to keep wine drinkable and prevent it going sour, or turning into vinegar was continual. Cloudy, discoloured evil smelling wines became a common disappointment of life.

In England the court of James 1 became notorious for its drunkenness and unattractive characteristics. The English palate loved Mediterranean wines shipped through what we now know as the Straits of Gibraltar.

What is the use of Muscadell, Malmesie and brown Bastard
These kinds of wines are only for married folkes, because they
strengthen the back…

Caravaggio (Italian 1571-1610). Bacchus, 1595 Uffizi Gallery, Florence

In 1556 at Oxford in England ‘poor scholars preferred wines were Gascony, Sack and Malmsey’. Muscadell, which was made basically from Muscat grapes was another sweet wine with an excellent bouquet. Gascon white wines were the mainstay of English cellars.  Rhenish red wines were made near Bonn and were becoming increasingly popular.

Rhineland vineyards established in the middle of the fourth century had developed the properties of wines grown in colder climates. For centuries they maintained a high reputation making it possible for them to continue to sell at prices, which made the vineyards viable.

Malmsey originally came from Crete and was a rich sweet wine. Sack was a rich, sweet and white, gold or tawny and rarely, if ever, red wine. It was sometimes dry, more often sweet and, on occasions harsh and strong. It appeared about the beginning of the sixteenth century from Iberia and the Canary Islands.

We would today think it was very similar to a sherry, which emerged from Jerez in Spain, one of the prettiest wine making towns of Europe.

Sherry, while sometimes sweet through blending, if left to itself, will ferment into a dry white wine. It became one of the great mainstay wines of the English and Irish tables for centuries and it became customary to drink it with soup, a tradition that has retained its popularity, at least in England, to the present day.

Well, saints may babble at the fount
And peers at the pump make free, but
Whisky, beer and most especially wine,
Is certainly good enough for me…

In Italy during the sixteenth century controversial painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio depicted an erotic fleshy boy on the threshold of sensuality, dressed as the Roman God Bacchus. There are touches of corruption – the apple is spoiled, hence the wormhole. The pomegranate is bursting with over-ripeness and, there is a hint of Vanitas; the boy triumphant in a youth that will quickly vanish, much like the bubbles in a carafe disappear. The glass cup of pleasure holds a rich red wine and the glass itself an example of a very rare Venetian glass Facon de Venise.

In England following the execution of Charles 1 Puritan disapproval of the indulgence in drink led to heavy fines on the tavern keeper, as well as offender. Cromwell’s commissioners were more than likely looked upon as ‘wowsers’ by the populace at large and would have contributed to their disillusionment of him and his régime, one in which an undercurrent of sex, sedition, and sacrilege was the reality in the public sphere.

Charles II

Fizzy Drink from France

After being governed by the Lord Protector for five years there was a great sigh of relief when Charles 11 was finally restored to the English throne in 1660. Charles had spent much of his time at exile at the French court, where he enjoyed the fashion, food and fine French wines, which he brought back into fashion in the commercially driven London market. He wore his petticoat breeches very prettily indeed leading a revival for luxury living supported by people who had suffered long and hard under puritanical restraint.

One wine from the Champagne region, disparaged by French wine drinkers for its faulty bubbles, was enthusiastically received at the English court. The development of stronger, thicker bottles by British glass makers encouraged wine makers in Champagne to produce this fizzy fashionable French wine for the lucrative British market.

In the process over the next two centuries the French would become famous for benchmarking the standard for a particular style of wine. Up until this period there had been no real tradition of great and fine wines for 1200 years; men had to drink what they could get. From now on an interest in refined table manners and gourmet food began. Nasty habits like belching at table and rudeness to foreigners was abolished and the stage was set for massive change.

A refinement and advancement in distillation processes in a technique known as ‘fortification’ would have an important effect on the making and maturing of wine. By 1680 in the cellar of the Earl of Bedford at Woburn Abbey a liquor distilled from wine called Brandy was achieving aristocratic status.

Brandy is shortened from a Dutch word brandewijn meaning “burnt wine”. During the last two decades of the century the brandy was being divided into quality; 1686 best brandy; 1693 inferior brandy. The English became noted at this time for being well mannered, sober and remarkably friendly and there was much kissing when meeting and parting.

Society of Diletannti a Drinking Club for men who had completed their Grand Tour.

The eighteenth century Age of Reason was a tumultuous time  which was also preoccupied with self examination. In salons multiple mirrors reflected with merciless clarity a world, which amused or intrigued. There were continual changes afoot and in order to move with the times and avoid revolution the need to acquire flexibility was dawning on many a noble English grand tourist mind as it soaked up the local European scene. Reflecting light became an obsession via glass, which could now be made in larger pieces than ever before,  on the table, walls and hanging from the ceiling.

An admiration for a new wonder lead glass went hand in hand with an improvement in wine processes and a distinct desire to appreciate wine for its own sake.

Eighteenth Century English Drinking Glasses of Lead with Cobalt Blue Twist Stems

This became an important aspect of every eighteenth and nineteenth century English and European gentleman’s broad ranging education, which also required him to understand and gain knowledge about such things as historical events, intellectual ideas, architecture, music, gardens, interiors, paintings, sculpture, silver and objet d’art.

In England connoisseurship became an increasingly important concern. Men’s clubs, devoted to pursuing a passion for priceless possesions and toasting exalted beauties and life sprang up. English wine drinking glasses of lead became such great objects of beauty, and delight, that today they are highly sought after by collectors the world over.

Decanters were custom made along with other wine implements such as, labels and funnels, coolers, corkscrews and coasters became necessary equipment and and a subject for much inventive refinement. The elite drank clarets from Burgundy as well as fortified port, which was considered a perfect beginning and end to a meal, well at least according to Dr. John Campbell who boasted he had drunk 13 bottles of the stuff at one sitting. Temperance was not a notable virtue of the English Georgian gentleman, no matter what their social status.

English Cordial Glass Selection 1745-1765

Far and away the emergence of the cylindrical bottle made possible by the proper maturing of wine became the greatest success story of all and by 1790 in Bordeaux two million bottles a year were being made.

The way dinner was served in noble houses changed gradually throughout the eighteenth century as it moved from the middle to the end of the day. The serious business of eating lasted for at least two hours with a servant for every guest. However dining practices distressed foreign visitors who were compelled to extend their stomachs to please the host.

Manners were not admired …it was vulgar to eat your soup with your nose in the plate and exceeding rude to scratch certain parts of your body, to spit, or blow your nose on your sleeve or lean your elbows on the table. Picking your teeth before the dishes were remove, not to mention washing your gums in the wine glass rinser…goodness none of these were acceptable at all.

Louis XV and his Friends enjoying Champagne by Jean Francois de la Troy

The English throughout the eighteenth century and in the first thirty years of the nineteenth century provided their guests and the French with great entertainment. The French regarded them before, and after the revolution as greedy, drunken, melancholic and un-stylish, a subject which was made clear in the publication of L’Apres-Diné des Anglais in 1814.  Emperor Napoleon also disparagingly called them a ‘nation of shopkeeper’s.

Foreigners were shocked by the fact chamber pots were provided in the dining room sideboard, although there was seemingly no embarrassment on the part of the English in this performance. After dinner the ladies retired to tea and scandal in the drawing room, while the men discussed politics, love affairs and drank themselves quite literally under the table, appropriately decorated with grapes.

Manners would improve eventually and from the mid nineteenth century English Country House life would become the most envied lifestyle in the world. Everyone would clamour for an invitation to the country for the weekend so they could enjoy superb vintage wines many of which were being laid down for years to come in purpose built cellars.  Perhaps renowned English Romantic poet, satirist and traveler George Gordon, Lord Byron should have the last word in this dissertation.

‘Man, being reasonable, must get drunk;
The best of life is but intoxication
Glory, the grape, love, gold, in these are sunk
The hopes of all men, and of every nation.

Carolyn McDowall © The Culture Concept 2010, 2011

With Special thanks to Adam & Dianna Lee, Winemakers, Siduri Winery, California

* The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
#German Poet and Translator of the Greek Poets Homer, Virgil and Horace, among others, Johnann Heinrich Voss 1751 – 1826

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