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Fumarium
A fumarium was a smoke chamber used in ancient Rome to enhance the flavor of wine through artificially "aging" the wine. Amphorae were placed in the chamber, which was built on top of a heated hearth, in order to impart a smoky flavor in the wine that also seemed to sharpen the acidity. The wine would sometimes come out of the fumarium with a paler color. In his book ''Vintage: The Story of Wine'', Hugh Johnson noted that Pliny the Elder and Columella did not recommend that "first-growth wines" like Falernian, Caecuban, and Alban be smoked. Process For preservation, the amphorae were sometimes treated with sulphur dioxide prior to being placed in the fumarium. In his book, ''The Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature'', John Kitto states that the ban on smoked wines as offerings in the Mishna stemmed from the Roman use of sulphur fumes - a uniquely Gentile technique.John Kitto, ''The Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature'', Fredonia Books 2005. See also * List of smoked foods This ...
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Aging (wine)
The aging of wine is potentially able to improve the quality of wine. This distinguishes wine from most other consumable goods. While wine is perishable and capable of deteriorating, complex chemical reactions involving a wine's sugars, acids and phenolic compounds (such as tannins) can alter the aroma, color, mouthfeel and taste of the wine in a way that may be more pleasing to the taster. The ability of a wine to age is influenced by many factors including grape variety, vintage, viticultural practices, wine region and winemaking style. The condition that the wine is kept in after bottling can also influence how well a wine ages and may require significant time and financial investment.R. Jackson ''"Wine Science: Principles and Applications"'' Third Edition, pp. 431–489, 643–671. Academic Press 2008 .R. Boulton, V. Singleton, L. Bisson, R. Kunkee ''Principles and Practices of Winemaking'', pp. 382–424. Springer 1996 New York . The quality of an aged wine varies significan ...
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Ancient Wine
Wine has been produced for thousands of years, with evidence of ancient wine production in Georgia from BC (the earliest known traces of wine), West Azerbaijan province of Iran from BC, Armenia from BC (large-scale production), and Sicily from BC. The earliest evidence of a grape and rice mixed based fermented drink sometimes compared to wine was found in ancient China ( BC). The altered consciousness produced by wine has been considered religious since its origin. The ancient Greeks worshiped Dionysus or Bacchus and the Ancient Romans carried on his cult.The history of wine in ancient Greece
at greekwinemakers.com
Consumption of ritual wine, probably a certain type of sweet wine original ...
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Ancient Rome And Wine
Ancient Rome played a pivotal role in the history of wine. The earliest influences on the viticulture of the Italian peninsula can be traced to ancient Greeks and the Etruscans. The rise of the Roman Empire saw both technological advances in and burgeoning awareness of winemaking, which spread to all parts of the empire. Rome's influence has had a profound effect on the histories of today's major winemaking regions in France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The Roman belief that wine was a daily necessity made the drink " democratic" and ubiquitous; in various qualities, it was available to slaves, peasants and aristocrats, men and women alike. To ensure the steady supply of wine to Roman soldiers and colonists, viticulture and wine production spread to every part of the empire. The economic opportunities presented by trading in wine drew merchants to do business with tribes native to Gaul and Germania, bringing Roman influences to these regions even before the ar ...
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Amphora
An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storage rooms and packages, tied together with rope and delivered by land or sea. The size and shape have been determined from at least as early as the Neolithic Period. Amphorae were used in vast numbers for the transport and storage of various products, both liquid and dry, but mostly for wine. They are most often ceramic, but examples in metals and other materials have been found. Versions of the amphorae were one of many shapes used in Ancient Greek vase painting. The amphora complements a vase, the pithos, which makes available capacities between one-half and two and one-half tons. In contrast, the amphora holds under a half-ton, typically less than . The bodies of the two types have similar shapes. Where the pithos may have multiple small ...
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Hearth
A hearth () is the place in a home where a fire is or was traditionally kept for home heating and for cooking, usually constituted by at least a horizontal hearthstone and often enclosed to varying degrees by any combination of reredos (a low, partial wall behind a hearth), fireplace, oven, smoke hood, or chimney. Hearths are usually composed of masonry such as brick or stone. For centuries, the hearth was such an integral part of a home, usually its central and most important feature, that the concept has been generalized to refer to a homeplace or household, as in the terms "hearth and home" and "keep the home fires burning". In the modern era, since the advent of central heating, hearths are usually less central to most people's daily life because the heating of the home is instead done by a furnace or a heating stove, and cooking is instead done with a kitchen stove/range (combination cooktop and oven) alongside other home appliances; thus many homes built in t ...
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Pliny The Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' Naturalis Historia'' (''Natural History''), which became an editorial model for encyclopedias. He spent most of his spare time studying, writing, and investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field. His nephew, Pliny the Younger, wrote of him in a letter to the historian Tacitus: Among Pliny's greatest works was the twenty-volume work ''Bella Germaniae'' ("The History of the German Wars"), which is no longer extant. ''Bella Germaniae'', which began where Aufidius Bassus' ''Libri Belli Germanici'' ("The War with the Germans") left off, was used as a source by other prominent Roman historians, including Plutarch, Tacitus and Suetonius. Tacitus—who many scholars agree had never travelled in Germania—used ''Bella Ger ...
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Columella
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (; Arabic: , 4 – ) was a prominent writer on agriculture in the Roman Empire. His ' in twelve volumes has been completely preserved and forms an important source on Roman agriculture, together with the works of Cato the Elder and Marcus Terentius Varro, both of which he occasionally cites. A smaller book on trees, ', is usually attributed to him. In 1794 the Spanish botanists José Antonio Pavón Jiménez and Hipólito Ruiz López named a genus of Peruvian asterid ''Columellia'' in his honour. Personal life Little is known of Columella's life. He was probably born in Gades, Hispania Baetica (modern Cádiz), possibly to Roman parents. After a career in the army (he was tribune in Syria in 35), he turned to farming his estates at Ardea, Carseoli, and Alba in Latium. ''De re rustica'' In ancient times, Columella's work "appears to have been but little read", cited only by Pliny the Elder, Servius, Cassiodorus, and Isidorus, and having ...
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Falernian Wine
Falernian ( la, Falernum) was a strong white wine popular in the classical Roman period, produced from Aglianico grapes (and quite possibly Greco as well)J. Robinson ''Vines, Grapes & Wines'' pgs 213 & 242 Mitchell Beazley 1986 on the slopes of Mount Falernus (now Monte Massico) near the border of Latium and Campania. From here, Falernian wine grew in popularity, becoming the one of the most highly regarded wines accessible to and consumed by the ancient Romans. In an Epyllion written in c.92 AD, Silius Italicus, a prominent Roman senator, attributed its origin to a chance meeting between a mythic pauper named Falernus, who was said to have lived on Mount Falernus in the late 3rd century BC, and Liber, the Roman god of viticulture. Considered a " first growth" or "cult wine" for its time, it was often mentioned in Roman literature, but disappeared after the classical period. There were three vineyards (or appellations) recognized by Romans: Caucinian Falernian from the vineyard ...
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Caecuban Wine
Caecuban wine (Latin: ''Caecubum'', Greek: ''Kaikoubos'') came from a small territory, ''ager Caecubus'', at Amyclae in coastal Latium (in the region known today as the Plain of Fondi). Around 70 BC, Varro already regarded this district as a place of legendary wealth. Strabo described the area's reputation for wine in his ''Geography'': "The Caecuban Plain borders on the Gulf of Caieta; and next to the plain comes Fundi, situated on the Appian Way. All these places produce exceedingly good wine; indeed, the Caecuban and the Fundanian and the Setinian belong to the class of wines that are widely famed, as is the case with the Falernian, the Alban and the Statanian." (''Geography'' V.3.6) Characteristics To many in the 1st century BC, Caecuban was the best of all wines, smoother than Falernian wine, fuller than Alban wine, strong and intoxicating. It was a white wine which turned fire-coloured as it aged. Dioscorides describes it as ''glykys'' "sweet". Athenaeus describes it as ove ...
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Alban Wine
Alban wine is a notable wine of Ancient Rome that was grown in the Colli Albani (Alban Hills) region, Southeast of Rome, at the foot of Mt. Albus. The area is now occupied by the modern day papal residence of Castelgandolfo. The land was praised by Columella: "For there is no doubt that, of all the vines that the earth sustains, those of the Massic, Surrentine, Alban, and Caecuban lands hold first place in the excellence of their wine" (''De re rustica'', III.8.5). Dionysius of Halicarnassus noted the quality of the area's wine as he wrote: "Lying below the city are plains marvelous to behold and rich in producing wines and fruits of all sorts in no degree inferior to the rest of Italy, and particularly what they call the Alban wine, which is sweet and excellent and, with the exception of the Falernian, certainly superior to all others." (Roman Antiquities Book 1). Reputation and characteristics In AD 77, Pliny the Elder rated Alban wine third in reputation after Caecuban wine an ...
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Sulphur Dioxide
Sulfur dioxide (IUPAC-recommended spelling) or sulphur dioxide (traditional Commonwealth English) is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a toxic gas responsible for the odor of burnt matches. It is released naturally by volcanic activity and is produced as a by-product of copper extraction and the burning of sulfur- bearing fossil fuels. Structure and bonding SO2 is a bent molecule with ''C''2v symmetry point group. A valence bond theory approach considering just ''s'' and ''p'' orbitals would describe the bonding in terms of resonance between two resonance structures. The sulfur–oxygen bond has a bond order of 1.5. There is support for this simple approach that does not invoke ''d'' orbital participation. In terms of electron-counting formalism, the sulfur atom has an oxidation state of +4 and a formal charge of +1. Occurrence Sulfur dioxide is found on Earth and exists in very small concentrations and in the atmosphere at about 1 ppm. On other planets, su ...
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Mishna
The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah. It is also the first major work of rabbinic literature. The Mishnah was redacted by Judah ha-Nasi probably in Beit Shearim or Sepphoris at the beginning of the 3rd century CE in a time when, according to the Talmud, the persecution of the Jews and the passage of time raised the possibility that the details of the oral traditions of the Pharisees from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE) would be forgotten. Most of the Mishnah is written in Mishnaic Hebrew, but some parts are in Aramaic. The Mishnah consists of six orders (', singular ' ), each containing 7–12 tractates (', singular ' ; lit. "web"), 63 in total, and further subdivided into chapters and paragraphs. The word ''Mishnah'' can also indicate a single paragraph o ...
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