CHAP. 13. (11.)—AT WHAT PERIOD GENEROUS WINES WERE FIRST
COMMONLY MADE IN ITALY.
While treating of these various details, it occurs to me to
mention that of the eighty different kinds throughout the
whole earth, which may with propriety be reckoned in the
class of generous[1] wines, fully two-thirds[2] are the produce
of Italy, which consequently in this respect far surpasses any
other country: and on tracing this subject somewhat higher
up, the fact suggests itself, that the wines of Italy have not
been in any great favour from an early period, their high
repute having only been acquired since the six hundredth year
of the City.
1. "Nobilia." In c. 29 he speaks of 195 kinds, and, reckoning all the
varieties, double that number.
2. Fée observes that the varieties of the modern wines are quite innumerable. He remarks also that Pliny does not speak of the Asiatic wines
mentioned by Athenæus, which were kept in large bottles, hung in the
chimney corner; where the liquid, by evaporation, acquired the consistency
of salt. The wines of other countries evidently were little known to Pliny.