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Winemaking, Pompeii-style
#1
[url=http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=518&ncid=732&e=2&u=/ap/20030501/ap_on_re_eu/italy_grapes_of_ash" target="top]Winemakers Use Ancient Pompeii Practices[/url]<br>
from Yahoo! News site<br>
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ALESSANDRA RIZZO, Associated Press Writer<br>
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ROME - Pompeii, the city buried in ashes some 2,000 years ago, has long offered a glimpse of daily life of ancient Italy. Now it also provides a taste of it.<br>
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Reviving a long-lost wine making tradition in Pompeii, an Italian company has produced a ruby red, fruity wine from native grape varieties grown within the walls of the archaeological site and cultivated using age-old techniques.<br>
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About 150 of 1,721 bottles were auctioned off Tuesday night in a Rome hotel, with bidders paying up to $940 for a case of six. The remaining bottles will go on sale on the Internet, with proceeds going to fund the restoration of Pompeii's wine cellars.<br>
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"The experiment is part of our effort to re-create the ancient environment," Pietro Giovanni Guzzo, the archaeological superintendent of ancient Pompeii, said.<br>
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Mount Vesuvius buried Pompeii in A.D. 79, killing thousands of people. However, a 20-foot-deep cocoon of volcanic ash kept the city virtually intact, providing precious information on domestic life in the ancient world. Today, the site is visited by about 2.5 million people a year.<br>
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The wine project started in 1996, when the wine company Mastroberardino and the Archaeological Superintendence teamed up to grow experimental wines using the traces of Pompeii's old vines.<br>
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"Wine had a central role as a cultural symbol, accompanying our civilization 2,000 years ago," said Piero Mastroberardino.<br>
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The studies have been carried out and coordinated by the Applied Research Laboratory, a branch of the archaeological agency that was created in 1994 with the funds of Italy's National Research Center.<br>
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The laboratory uses experts from research centers both in Italy and abroad, the agency said, including the Max Planck institute in Germany, the anthropology department of the Adelaide University in Australia and the department of paleo-environmental sciences in Kyoto, Japan.<br>
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"We have used both archaeological and botanical data," the laboratory's director, Annamaria Ciarallo, said in an interview Tuesday. "We have conducted analyses on the land, the woods and the pollen in order to identify the vines. Then we have compared them with the figures represented in frescoes."<br>
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Archaeological excavations and the molding of imprints left in the soil by vine roots also allowed experts to identify where ancient vineyards were grown and what kind of grapes were used, Guzzo said. Additional information came from Latin authors, such as Pliny the Elder, who was himself killed in the eruption.<br>
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Before the eruption, Pompeii was an affluent port city that derived some of its wealth from wine trade. Amphoras carrying the insignia of Pompeii wines have been found as far as modern France, said Guzzo, the superintendent.<br>
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After years of studies, close rows of vines were planted. One of the five vineyards was put exactly where the ancient wine merchant Eusinus had his own; another was located in the shadow's of Pompeii's amphitheater.<br>
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The wine ended up a blend of two local varieties â€â€Â
Cheers,
Jenny
Founder, Roman Army Talk and RomanArmy.com

We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson
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#2
One thing is for certain, the amphora had to be coated internally. For a test, I made several one quart/liter clay jugs, did not glaze them, and filled them with wine in January. Immediately they began to seep wine through the porous clay. I sealed them, and have been shaking the bottles over the months, with the intention of opening them to see what was left and what condition after several months. However, they are today, in May, completely dry. <p></p><i></i>
Richard Campbell
Legio XX - Alexandria, Virginia
RAT member #6?
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