BACKGROUND The power in ancient Rome
RECIPES IN MARTIAL
It spumet rubra tibi pale tan head,
lautorum cenis Saep deny potes.
for you if boiled in a pot pale red beans,
dinners of the rich can often give up.
conclude quae cenas lactuca solebat avorum,
December mihi, cur illa nostras inchoat dapes?
That lettuce with which they used to finish a meal of our ancestors,
tell me, why now is a starter?
Ne tibi pallentes moveant discomfort Caules, nitrated viridis brassica fiat aqua.
Why do not you give these pale cabbage nausea,
ago 'greening the broccoli in water nitrous.
Fila Tarentines gravitate redolent leeks ediati quotiens, oscula Clusa given.
graveolenti Each time you ate a slice of leek
Taranto, kisses with his mouth closed.
POETRY IN THE POWER OF HORATIO
Really there are numerous references to food within the poetry of Horace
[1] .
Our poet always expresses a preference for simple foods, healthy and unsophisticated. But we must say that his frugal tastes are also influenced by the need not to spend too much, as can be seen also as regards the wine, says Horace often can not afford the food more delicious and expensive. But the need to settle for cheap food does not necessarily oblige the poet to eat badly. On the contrary, Horace seems to always be able to get meals from food also inviting more common. Even in the kitchen, he can implement his moderation and good taste. In short, be invited to dine with him means to meet in a simple yet comfortable and eat simple food but cooked with care.
But when Horace was invited to lunch with other people, becomes a guide for us that makes us discover the eating habits of the Romans of his time. With accuracy and disenchanted with his usual irony, tells us the most sumptuous banquets and delicious foods, but also the excesses and bad taste that sometimes reveal some Romans.
You would say that Horace lives two dimensions of food: a private and domestic, the other social and friendly. In both situations, however, the poet appears as a lover of good food
[2] , a gourmet can appreciate or criticize valid arguments foods that are offered
[3] .
I.1. Frugal meals and foods that are low
Orazio food tastes are always marked by a degree of balance and sobriety. Opposing the lavish and indigestible Roman banquets, the poet loves to eat lightly, choosing delicate mallow (malvae), chicory (cichorea) and olives (olivae).
Hor. Carm. The 31, 15-16:
("I eat olives, chicory and hollyhocks read)
Moreover Horace knows that, so often, the foods are just too sophisticated a kind of fashion, do not exhibit characteristics that Nutritional better than those of most common foods.
Orazio is not fooled by fashion shows and to have a kind of folk wisdom: when you are hungry for real, a bit 'of bread and salt (salt cum panis) will do to settle the stomach.
Hor. Sat. II 2, 17-18:
("The bread and salt well calm the howling of the stomach)
The poet in fact prefer the simple bread tasty cakes (liba) and cakes with honey (mellitae placentae).
Hor. Epist. The 10, 10-11:
("I reject the buns, I prefer the bread tastier cakes with honey)
The lamb (Agnini) and tripe (omasum) in Rome, are reputed poor food, rather coarse and vulgar taste. In fact such a Menio, street actors, when it feeds its gains nothing with these foods, which are very cheap.
Hor. Epist. The 15, 34-35:
('poor ate meat dishes of lamb and tripe, in a quantity that would be enough for three bears')
Cabbage (caulis) is a vegetable very common and also widely used in kitchen to make it more palatable it can be seasoned with vinegar dressing (vetus Acetum).
Hor. Sat. II 2, 58-62:
('Pour over cabbage, a few drops of oil, not vinegar instead of saving old)
The peasants, simple people are not slaves of the fashions of the metropolis for their foot smoked ham (smoky perna) and cabbage (caulis) represent a more than decent meal.
Hor. Sat. II 2, 117:
('[...] a cabbage with a smoked pork leg)
Although garlic (Allium) is a poor food, mostly used for seasoning and add flavor to other foods, but should be used with some caution because the taste can cause severe discomfort. Horace, for example, seems to dislike him in the most value: even speculates that it was the witch Canidia to prepare the food terrible (dapes) with garlic that's happened to eat!
Hor. epode. 3, 1-8:
("If someone has strangled the old father's throat with impious hand, is ordered to eat garlic, more terrible than hemlock. O strong intestines of reapers! Perhaps the blood was mixed with a viper in secret with these herbs? Or maybe it was this terrible Canidia to prepare food? ")
As in all things, but Horace felt, even in the quest for power simply do not need to exaggerate. A simple meals is very different from a food from stingy. Such Avidieno that to save only eat olives old (quinquennes oleae) and berries (wild horns), then it is surely to blame.
Hor. Sat. II 2, 57:
("Olive-old five years of forest and carnelian)
I.2. Sumptuous banquets and sophisticated food E 'is therefore clear that we eat at the home of Horace, but in a simple manner.
But when the poet is invited to sumptuous banquets organized by the wealthiest citizens of Rome, is located in front of displays of wealth that, as refined, and the affectation so often encroach nell'esagerazione
end in itself [4] . Consequently, the poet sometimes uses irony to ridicule those that have Roman Banquet as expensive as ridiculous and in bad taste.
In the next step, Horace claims that those who are really hungry prefers simple foods, such as chicken meat. Rich Instead, idle and bored, not really even have appetite for this are always looking for unusual foods such as oysters (ostreae), the parrot fish (Scarus), the hazel (lagois peregrina) and peacock (pavo).
Hor. Sat. II 2, 20-24:
('Search for the condiments, in physical labor, neither the oyster or the parrot fish or hazel may please the diner pale and fat because of the great vices. But hardly resist delight your palate if you were full of food a peacock instead of a normal hen)
The wild boar (open) and turbot (rhombus) are delicacies to be consumed when no longer fresh. But when the stomach is tired from excessive vices, is much better confined to radishes (rapulae) all'insalata and bitter (acid Inula).
Hor. Sat. II 2, 41-44:
("The boar and turbot, if fresh, they smell bad, but when too much strain on an abundance stomach sick, it prefers the bitter radishes and salad)
Horace continues its satire against the vagaries of the food Roman contemporaries. Roman cooks who do not know what to invent to satisfy their masters, now also cooked the stork (ciconia).
Hor. Sat. II 2, 49:
("The stork was safely in the nest)
Good cooking is now just a matter of fashion. The rich want at all costs appear refined and sophisticated, making the most unlikely cook food. If someone proposes a new recipe, now is imitated by all. As usual, Horatio notes with irony disenchanted this absurd phenomenon. If a bad food, for example roast mergansers (Merge axes), food becomes a "fashionable" then everyone wants to eat ...
Hor. Sat. II 2, 51:
("If someone now saying that the mergansers are delicious roast [...] ')
Orazio has considerable knowledge of various foods and ways of cooking, combine and serve. Among the meat dishes are often fried (be) and boiled (elixum). But sometimes the combinations of meat brought by Roman chefs are quite extravagant and far away from the taste of us moderns. In Rome, for example, it can happen to serve together thrushes (turd) and seafood (conchylia).
Hor. Sat. II 2, 73-74:
("Once you have mixed up the roast with boiled meat and seafood with thrush)
Chicken meat (Pullus) and kid (haedus) are widely used in kitchens Roman.
key issue is then the role of dried fruit, very popular because of easy storage. Raisins (Pensilis grapes) and dried figs (surfaces) are served in almost all meals. Very common is also the use of nuts (nuces).
Hor. Sat. II 2, 121-122:
("With a chicken and a goat, then the raisins sweeten the end of the meal with walnuts and dried figs, split in two)
In some passages of his work shows Orazio possess a culinary culture really thorough, practical knowledge that would seem to belong more specialized in a real cook a great poet. The interesting culinary tips are provided to him in person or by the voice of several characters featured in his poetry.
Through reading, you learn so many culinary concepts: the elongated eggs are better than round, cabbage grown in the city should be avoided because it tasteless, nestled deep in a chicken Falerno will have a more tender meat, the mushrooms are the only ones who can eat, the more black finish are great for meals as an aperitif should not offer soft drinks and Falerno mixed with honey, dates, sea shells, salad and Coo white wine are good for constipation, the shellfish are of very different depending on the area from which they come.
Hor. Sat. II 4, 12-34:
("Remember to serve the eggs with an elongated shape, because they have better taste and whites whiter than round: because they contain egg yolk in the shell sticky male. Cabbage growing in fields dry is sweeter than that of suburban gardens: it is nothing more tasteless vegetable in a garden irrigation. Are you a visitor suddenly arrives late, so the chicken is not hard on the palate you will have the foresight to soak in the lively Falerno: this will make it tender. Mushrooms in the lawn are excellent, others do not have to rely on. Spend the summer very healthy one that will end the meal with more black, picked from the plant before the sun is too strong. Aufidius honey mixed with the dense Falerno wrong: in an empty stomach should offer only soft drinks. Will prepare the bowel rather better with a few drinks easier. If the gut is constipated, will solve the problem dates of sea shells and cheap a little 'salad, not without the white wine of Kos. The new moon gives rise to the soft shells, but not every sea shells produces quality: the Lake peloride Lucrino murex is better than the Bay, oysters are born in Circeo, Miseno in the rich, refined Taranto is known for open shells comb-shaped)
Continuing our culinary journey of the first century BC Roman you get other information: the flesh of the Umbrian wild boar is far better than the Laurentino boar, deer reared in the vineyards are often tasteless, the pregnant rabbits have a very refined meat.
Hor. Sat. II 4, 40-44:
("The Umbrian boar, fed on acorns of oaks, fills the round plate of the man who avoids the meat spring: in fact, the wild boar Laurentino, fattened with grass and reeds, is disgusting. The vineyard feed deer that are not always tasty. Gourmet seek the shoulders of a pregnant hare ')
Horace is even able to explain in detail the procedure for the preparation of two different sauces. The first is very simple and consists of olive oil, wine and brine. The other, more complex you get with olive oil, chopped herbs and saffron. Tivoli
Apples are particularly attractive to the eye, but the taste of apples Piceno is much better.
Grapes venucola is great for preparing preserved, that of Albano is good to be dried.
Hor. Sat. II 4, 63-72:
('E' should know the qualities of two different types of salsa. One is simple and consists of fresh olive oil, which will then mix with a lot of wine and brine, not unlike that matures in jars of Byzantium. The other is prepared by boiling it with chopped herbs and sprinkled with saffron lie down and allow to cool, adding olive oil over the squeezed in presses Venafro. Tivoli Apples are prettier to look at, but not so good taste compared to those of Piceno. venucola The grape is good for canning, to Albano will be better for it to dry)
Horace although it tastes pretty frugal, and the viewer is also witness to the magnificent Roman banquets. Who offers these meals will demonstrate its wealth and its refinement, combining the quality of food, too frantic quest to find ever new and spectacular drugs. The taste of foods is important, but more important is their appearance, which should surprise and excite guests. In the next step
Horace describes the opulence of appetizers served at Roman banquets. The service must be cured in every detail: after each course come into play two slaves: a meticulously clean the table with a purple cloth, carefully remove all the other crumbs and leftover food.
Hor. Sat. II 8, 6-13:
("To begin a boar Luke's [...] and as a side dish spicy turnips, lettuce and radishes, appropriate foods to stimulate the languid stomach, then carrot, pickle and wine dregs of Kos. Aside from these appetizers , a child briefly cleaned the table in maple with a purple cloth, and another picked up the crumbs and leftovers that could be bothersome to the guests')
Who organizes a banquet urges cooks to invent their own recipes ever more extravagant. This fact has two consequences: on the one hand more and more food on the tables appear unthinkable in Rome, on the other hand also the most common foods are processed to the point present a totally unusual taste.
Here are three songs that testify to the many food extravagances of the rich citizens of Rome.
Hor. Sat. II 8, 27-30:
("We, I mean, eating birds, oysters, fish tasted very different from the usual, and I noticed right away when I offered him the loins of a fish and a bird turbot, which I had never tasted before ")
Hor. Sat. II 8, 42-53:
("The scope of a moray eel, lying on a tray in the middle of crabs poached in the sauce. Now the boss says:" This has been captured pregnant because the meat is worse after the birth. The sauce is made with these ingredients: oil Venafro from the first pressing, garo Iberia extracted from fish, wine for five years but of our lands, paid during the cooking process - when the sauce is finished, there is no wine goes better than that of Chios - then white pepper, with a little 'vinegar which is derived from grapes of Metimna. I first suggested that we cook together and heather green enula
[5] love, then you Curtillo joined the unwashed urchins, because the fruits of the sea, giving a better pickle juice ")
Hor. Sat. II 8, 85-93:
('Then followed the footmen who carried a tray on a huge crane in pieces, sprinkled with salt, and farro, a white goose liver fattened with figs succulent shoulder of hare detached from the body because of the much more delicate flavor. Finally we see also lead from the chest browned blackbirds and pigeons without the back: great food, if only the boss had not told all their sources and quality)
Often the passion for good food can escalate into addiction. The search for new food always becomes the main occupation of many Roman gourmets. Horace condensing it well below the maximum.
Hor. Epist. The 6, 56-57:
("If it is true that those who eat well live well, then we go where we lead the throat, fishing and hunting)
The rich therefore behave in ways often absurd for what concerns the ' power. The fact remains that the poor, when they see those opulent banquet which will never be able to participate, are obviously tormented by hunger, but also envy. In
Hor. Epist. The 15, 34-35 has already met with a poor actor in the street, forced by financial hardship just to eat tripe and lamb. Here's what he thinks when he sees the rich Romans who eat fatty steaks and bacon thrushes.
Hor. Epist. The 15, 39-41:
("'I am not surprised, to Hercules - he said - as if they waste their goods while eating, because food is not as good of a thrush or a piece of fat bacon")
I.3. Food DOC
As it happens today, even in the Roman world of the first century BC there are geographical areas known for the production of some particular foodstuff.
The fish sauce (garum) most famous and delicious, for example, comes from the Iberian Peninsula: the gourmet Romans attempted to get money rather than spending too high
[6] .
Libya is famous in the ancient world for its abundant production of wheat (frumentum)
[7] . The agricultural commodities produced in Africa is exported to Rome to feed the growing population of the metropolis.
Hor. Carm. I 1, 9-10:
("Another one is satisfied because all the clutter in his barn harvest fields of Libya)
Sicily is famous for the sweetness of its fruit.
Hor. Carm. III 1, 18-19:
("The food of Sicily not take their sweet flavor) instead
In Calabria, according to the testimony of Horace, is produced honey (mel) particularly sensitive.
Hor. Carm. III 16, 33:
("Even if the bees of their honey do not bring Calabria)
Apples from the Piceno territory (poma Picena) are very popular in Rome. In the next step you will find a fool who likes to try to hit the ceiling by removing the seeds from the apples themselves.
Hor. Sat. II 3, 272-273:
("When extracting the seeds from apples picene're happy if by chance you hit the ceiling, you're in you? ")
I.4. The etiquette during meals Roman
course feeding time of the Roman Horace does not lend great attention to hygiene of food. However you should not even think that any neglect is tolerated. Horace, meanwhile, proves to be careful to clean the dishes, goblets and cups in which food and drink. Moreover, in a decent and nice meal, the servants must be cleaned and must on no food and dirty dishes.
Hor. Sat. II 4, 78-80:
('It caused great discomfort in the stomach the fact that a servant with a glass touch anointed hands after you swallowed something hidden, or if you are a disgusting dirt encrusted in an ancient crater)
Water is a key consideration during meals: in addition to drinking, it used to be mixed with wine and to wash their hands after each course of the diners. In each of these three situations, as would seem obvious, the water must be pure and clear. The problem, noticed by Horace, is that in some banquets landlords do not bother to offer the guests absolutely clean water.
Hor. Sat. II 2, 68-69:
("And it will offer guests dirty water, as the coarse Nevio: this is a huge defect!)
[1] on the subject, cf. F. Minissale Camaioni, "Nasidieno Rufus' character in a comic-opera (interpretation of Horace's Satire II 8), in" Proceedings of the Academy of Peloritana Pericolanti "63, 1987, pp. 211 to 218, P. FAITHFUL, art of eating well and living happy (Hor. Sat. II 4), "Aufidus" 21, 1993, pp. 13 to 38.
[2] on the subject, cf. M. Montanari, Convivio, history and culture of good food, Bari 1989; N. Valeria, the board of the ancients, Milan 1989; AA.VV., The Power in the Ancient World, edited by the Ministry of Culture, Rome 1990; EU PAOLI, Roman life. Customs, institutions, traditions, Milan 1990, pp. 78 to 89, P. Veyne, The Private Life in the Roman Empire, Rome - Bari 1992, pp. 181 to 183, J. CARCOPINO, Daily life in Rome, Rome - Bari 19945, pp. 301 to 314.
[3] fundamental work in the history of Roman cuisine is the De re coquinaria (late first century AD) Apicius. His reading is particularly useful for those who want to know in detail the various stages of preparation of many Roman recipes.
[4] A famous example of a sumptuous banquet and extravagant dinner is so-called Trimalchionis, long story that occupies 52 chapters (out of 141 remained of total) of the Satyricon of Petronius. This dinner offered by the rich freedman Trimalchione, is characterized by a great many dishes are amazing and they want to entertain the guests. But the irony of Petronius (even if his identity is unknown to this day, is certainly a conservative) can turn this display of opulence in a grotesque display of bad taste of the nouveau riche of Rome.
[5] v. 51: inulas Amaras: Inula probably corresponds to the greek helénion, usually made with "Elena" or "enula.
[6] The famous fish sauce called garum (but his names are many: oxygarum, Muria, Alleca, liquamen) is much used in Roman cuisine. Prepared with a lengthy procedure (pieces of fish and offal are mixed, ground and let it ferment) is then poured into barrels and stored in cellars. Garum is used as a dressing on almost all the food cooked in Rome and the cooks, if they are able, should know how to dose the amount of garum good food. Garum The most popular is certainly the Iberian, but this fish sauce is produced in many other cities of the ancient world, among which stands out Pompeii. The cost of a jar of Iberian garum can be extremely high. Needless to say that today, for the sake of us moderns, any food prepared with garum would be unbearable, almost inedible.
[7] As regards the production of cereals, not forgetting Sicily, real granary of the empire. In relation to the problems of corruption linked to agriculture practiced in Sicily, is the important contribution made by Cicero in the prayer De wheat, the second part of the Actio secunda in Verrem (70 BC).
POWER IN THE MIDDLE AGES
The food has played a central role in human history. Talking Food in the Middle Ages means addressing a fundamental aspect of society of the period, in which short periods alternating phases of plenty of famine. The strong sense of insecurity, uncertainty and fear that pervades much of this historical phase creates an attitude of very special food. And indeed, it becomes a real status symbol: those who eat has power, and food for the hungry means doing something exaggerated, voracious, almost violent. The monks can eat but autoreprimono, according to Christian doctrine that condemns the sins of gula: the alternation of abundance and deprivation increases, as stated by the scholar Leo Moulin, "the obsession with food, the importance of eating and in return, the pain (and deserve) represented by the mortifications food. " During the Middle Ages not just food, says historian Massimo Montanari but "hunger becomes the subject of privilege."
The food of the peasants
Thousand and after that the search for food becomes more difficult: the considerable increase of population, the decrease in the areas to be put under cultivation, the increasingly invasive presence in the territory of bannalità noble, as reserve grazing, hunting and fishing, makes life hard for the peasants. The meat is scarce, it becomes increasingly valuable, synonymous with abundance and prosperity. The few pets are considered beasts of burden, which are essential to perform the heavy work in the fields. Thereby increasing consumption cereal rye from Buckwheat: The term pottage, that spreads in this period, indicates the sauce, which accompanies the meal is based almost exclusively on pane.Esso is present at every meal, all varieties and colors: Barley, Spelt, rye, chestnuts. Often, different colors indicate membership in a very specific name, or a certain geographical area. In urban areas, however, there is a growing use of durum wheat bread, eaten more clearly than in the countryside. The wine, according to the greek-roman tradition, remains a popular food among the poorer classes: it is nutritious, making it more cheerful, you can use as an anesthetic, all good reasons why even the privileged classes consumo.La underpins the board who lives on the produce of the land can not predict the presence of vegetables from the cabbage, zucchini, onions or spinach. Flat usual are, in fact, the soup of seasonal vegetables, often mixed with vegetables: peas, broad beans, lentils, easy to dry and rich in protein, frequently accompany meals replacing the meat. It, mainly white, is designed for holidays: chickens, hens, a few rabbits are the only option for the more substantial class of farmers. Herbs, typical of the Mediterranean, from thyme, rosemary, catmint the basil, along with low fat and oil to enrich this simple dishes, which are the staple food for peasants. The food
potentiUna representations of typical medieval aristocratic society is the time of the banquet. On the table spread, different types of meat are roasted to give the favorite food of the noble class, which they consider a weakness by the powerful voluntary abstention, a sign of humiliation and loss of his rank: the documents of the time, it is equivalent to ' obligation to lay down their arms and then to a total loss of identity. Moreover, the Charlemagne, according to his biographer Einhard, is eating roast daily, in spite of old age is suffering from gout and the doctors advise him to move on to dishes leggeri.Attraverso the accounting books of the time that we have received, we are able to focus a world of aristocrats used to drink usually wine to accompany the tasty white meat - capons, geese, hens and chickens - and red - beef, pork - but especially the venison and lamb with corn bread, eggs and cheese. Vegetables and legumes, are not recommended by doctors at the time the stomachs refined as not very digestible, have a marginal role on the tables of the rich, as well as frutta.Il honey, known only sweetener - sugar Arab origin is not yet spread - is instead consumed in abundance. The most common cooking method is boiling, using lots of spices such as pepper from India, coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, now hard to find and very expensive, that flavor the food and Drink, retard putrefaction and soften the sour taste. Herbs are also very common: in this way the meat, especially venison, from deer to deer, ducks, pheasants by, it becomes less hard and gaining flavor, partly because often accompanied by fat. The same steaks are first boiled, and only later are torn apart and skewered on the spit. The food of
monaciL'idea deprivation of food, a supervised diet and essential concept behind the spread of monastic life in the Middle Ages. For this reason, in all Regule that we have received, from that of Benedict than John Cassian, and constantly recurring theme of food is essential. If the abundance of food is a symbol of power of arms, the "fast" becomes synonymous with spirituality and mysticism. In medieval culture, the body prevents the elevation to god, still holding the man desires and drives that are constantly humiliated. Meat is the first food to be banned, because best represents the strength and power warrior. In fact, This applies to the first monasticism, stricter and more rigorous in complying with the precepts of the order. The flesh, therefore, initially banned from canteens and replaced by fish, legumes, eggs and cheese, it tends to reappear in the eleventh century, partly because be more consistent start to the presence of aristocracy among men. During holidays, not just in the liturgical calendar, meat, especially pork, is present in the meals cooked by the monks in a different way. He also appears in the notes, preserved in salt, dried and bagged. According to sources at the time, the Abbey of Cluny, one of the most important of the Christian West, are the two diets that alternate throughout the year, a winter and a summer. Eating coincides with a collective moment, and the monks find themselves in the dining room on weekdays and once in those two festivi.Il dinner, which coincides with the south, has two hot dishes: the potagium pulses and vegetable soup, and a third plate, the general or the dish, served on alternate days during the week, which brings to the table eggs, cheese, vegetables. The wine and white bread are always available. In summer meals are two, as these increase your waking hours and working conditions. The dinner, rather frugal, is based on what remains of the meal along with some fruits of the Mille stagione.Dopo, this regime so severe tends gradually to become more flexible: you multiply things to do, the jobs to be done, especially administrative. The assets under management are growing, following the impressive legacies, to the properties that expand and move away from the monaco size frugal and simple which is used to, and follow the rules of their order. So the time of feeding and diet are changed: the simplicity of origins is exceeded in order to make room for abundance and variety of foods. The kitchens, more spacious and pantries full of valuable products, become a place of prosperity, of pleasure: the gula meets with Luxuria, the two sins condemned by Christianity that both often shared by the medieval imagination, as much literature of the time, from Chaucer to Boccaccio, bequeathed to us.
Wine
fruits ferment naturally, so the wine is nothing more than a refinement of this natural process and over time has spread to all parts of the world in which men lived near wild vines. A type of vine, Vitis vinifera, produces almost all the wine you drink in the world today. It is believed that this variety originated in Transcaucasia (the current Georgia and Armenia). The first evidence of cultivation of Vitis vinifera date from the fourth millennium BC in ancient Mesopotamia, and an amphora of wine containing traces found in Iran has been dated to around 3500 BC Later, the wine culture has reached Europe through Egypt, Greece and Spain. The wine had an important role in the customs of Greek and Roman civilizations. The Greeks took their vineyards and began producing wine in their colonies in southern Italy, the Romans, then the wine-growing throughout the life of the empire. As regards the start of vineyards in France, there are two hypotheses: the evidence currently available suggests that the Greek colonists of Massilia (today Marseille) you imported wine, some scholars believe, however, that even before the arrival of the Greeks, the Celts had begun viticulture, although evidence supporting this hypothesis as there are only seeds of wild grapes. Gaul in Roman times became so important a source of wine that made laws to protect the Italian manufacturer.
Wine production from the Middle Ages to the present After the fall of the Roman Empire and the domination of Germanic peoples in the territories previously occupied by the Roman wine production declined. He became, in some cases, an activity reserved to the monasteries, because the wine was considered essential to the Eucharistic celebration. Between the twelfth and sixteenth century, However, the production of wine and came back to spread throughout this period the wine was the main export product of France. During the seventeenth century it developed the production of bottles and went back into favor the use of cork (forgotten since Roman times) which made it possible to improve the storage of wine. Many of the best vineyards in the Bordeaux region were developed in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century by the local lords, and it was then that he began to produce champagne, while British merchants developed in parallel with the cultivation of vines in the Douro Valley in Portugal.
regard to territories outside Europe, in Chile began in the sixteenth century, South Africa in the seventeenth, eighteenth in America and Australia in the nineteenth. From 1863 onwards, the European wine industry suffered the devastation of phylloxera, an insect that causes the wilting of the leaves and attacks the roots of the vine. The phylloxera came from America, and it was from there that came the solution of the problem: from 1880 onwards are grafted on phylloxera-resistant American grapes Vitis vinifera, the European Union. During the first half of the twentieth century, the grape growing and wine production suffered a collapse, because of political conflicts and wars, marked by problems of adulteration, fraud and overproduction. The surplus is still a serious problem, fundamentally unresolved throughout Europe, though, especially for DOC (denomination of origin) and DOCG (denomination of controlled and guaranteed origin), are established maximum production per hectare. The second half of the twentieth century, however, marked important technical advances in both viticulture and wine-making and has seen a growing popularity of these activities around the world.
