Quotation from: Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period

Written by: Paul Lacroix


By whom and at what period the vine was naturalised in Gaul has been a
long-disputed question, which, in spite of the most careful research,
remains unsolved. The most plausible opinion is that which attributes the
honour of having imported the vine to the Phoenician colony who founded
Marseilles.


Pliny makes mention of several wines of the Gauls as being highly
esteemed. He nevertheless reproaches the vine-growers of Marseilles,
Beziers, and Narbonne with doctoring their wines, and with infusing
various drugs into them, which rendered them disagreeable and even
unwholesome (Fig. 106). Dioscorides, however, approved of the custom in
use among the Allobroges, of mixing resin with their wines to preserve
them and prevent them from turning sour, as the temperature of their
country was not warm enough thoroughly to ripen the grape.

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