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After seeing this question on the site (Is there a modern wine that is designed to resemble ancient Roman winemaking?) sometime back and I became interested in knowing if there is a modern wine that is designed to resemble ancient Hebrew (Palestinian) wines from around the first century?

It would be awesome to have some sort of a regional "historical" wine to drink at Easter or even to be able to obtain such a wine for a minister friend for his liturgical usage during Holy Week or Eastertide.

Is there a modern wine, commercially available today, that is intended to resemble ancient Palestinian wine as closely as possible from around the first century (more or less)?

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Ken Graham
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  • Woah, great question! However, is it really possible to know what to look for in 'this' wine? If you can give some pointers we can all go and find out. – dougal 5.0.0 Mar 16 '17 at 13:35
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    @dougal3.0.0 I think (and he can correct me if I'm wrong) that, in part, Ken is asking if somebody else has done this research (and then produced it). – Monica Cellio Mar 16 '17 at 16:18
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    @MonicaCellio Your comment is very astute and correct. – Ken Graham Mar 16 '17 at 22:38
  • Based on what I read Retsina is about the closest thing you are going to find. It may not be made in Amphora, but the ingredients and flavor are about the same. – farmersteve Mar 16 '17 at 22:40

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How about Marawi Wine from the Recanati Winery in Israel.

The wine, called marawi and released last month by Recanati Winery, is the first commercially produced by Israel’s growing modern industry from indigenous grapes. It grew out of a groundbreaking project at Ariel University in the occupied West Bank that aims to use DNA testing to identify — and recreate — ancient wines drunk by the likes of King David and Jesus Christ. - Israel Aims to Recreate Wine That Jesus and King David Drank

Ken Graham
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I would say yes and no... I was reading "Vintage" by Hugh Johnson. It's out of print, but you can find it on Alibris. I highly recommend it if you want to read the history of wine.

In the De Re Rustica chapter about Roman wine, he talks about the very highest quality wine called Falernian he says:

It is surprising to learn that all of them were white wines - until you also learn that they were all sweet. The tast of the Augustan age (27bc - 14 ad) was for wine that was sweet and strong, and very often cooked in much the same way as madeira is today. Usually it was drunk diluted with warm water or even seawater.

Wine did not last that long back then. They kept it in Amphora and it probably had to be drunk within the year after picking before it turned to vinegar.

There is a lot more in the chapter about how cheaper wines they added flavorings like herbs, spices and resins.

So, my answer is to seek out a Retsina from Greece. Retsina, is a sweet, strong white wine made with pine resin. This is probably the closest you are going to get to a wine that was made 2000 years ago.

farmersteve
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