יין, Gen. xix, 32, οινος, Matt. ix, 17, a liquor expressed from
grapes. The art of refining wine upon the lees was known to the Jews.
The particular process, as it is now practised in the island of Cyprus,
is described in Mariti’s Travels. The wine is put immediately from the
vat into large vases of potters’ ware, pointed at the bottom, till they
are nearly full, when they are covered tight and buried. At the end of a
year what is designed for sale is drawn into wooden casks. The dregs in
the vases are put into wooden casks destined to receive wine, with as
much of the liquor as is necessary to prevent them from becoming dry
before use. Casks thus prepared are very valuable. When the wine a year
old is put in, the dregs rise, and make it appear muddy, but afterward
they subside and carry down all the other feculences. The dregs are so
much valued that they are not sold with the wine in the vase, unless
particularly mentioned.
The “new wine,” or “must,” is mentioned, Isa. xlix, 26; Joel i, 5; iii,
18; and Amos ix, 13, under the name עסים. The “mixed wine,” ממסד, Prov.
xxiii, 30, and in Isaiah lxv, 11 rendered “drink-offering,” may mean
wine made stronger and more inebriating by the addition of higher and
more powerful ingredients, such as honey, spices, _defrutum_, or wine
inspissated by boiling it down, myrrh, mandragora, and other strong
drugs. Thus the drunkard is properly described as one that seeketh
“mixed wine,” Prov. xxiii, 30, and is mighty to “mingle strong drink,”
Isa. v, 22; and hence the psalmist took that highly poetical and sublime
image of the cup of God’s wrath, called by Isaiah, li, 17, “the cup of
trembling,” containing, as St. John expresses it, Rev. xiv, 10, pure
wine made yet stronger by a mixture of powerful ingredients: “In the
hand of Yahweh is a cup, and the wine is turbid; it is full of a mixed
liquor, and he poureth out of it,” or rather, “he poureth it out of one
vessel into another,” to mix it perfectly; “verily the dregs thereof,”
the thickest sediment of the strong ingredients mingled with it, “all
the ungodly of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.” “Spiced
wine,” Cant. viii, 2, was wine rendered more palatable and fragrant with
aromatics. This was considered as a great delicacy. Spiced wines were
not peculiar to the Jews; Hafiz speaks of wines “richly bitter, richly
sweet.” The Romans lined their vessels, _amphoræ_, with odorous gums, to
give the wine a warm bitter flavour: and the orientals now use the
admixture of spices to give their wines a favourite relish. The “wine of
Helbon,” Ezek. xxvii, 18, was an excellent kind of wine, known to the
ancients by the name of _chalibonium vinum_. It was made at Damascus;
the Persians had planted vineyards there on purpose, says Posidosius,
quoted by Athenæus. This author says that the kings of Persia used no
other wine. Hosea, xiv, 7, mentions the wine of Lebanon. The wines from
the vineyards on that mount are even to this day in repute; but some
think that this may mean a sweet-scented wine, or wine flavoured with
fragrant gums.
grapes. The art of refining wine upon the lees was known to the Jews.
The particular process, as it is now practised in the island of Cyprus,
is described in Mariti’s Travels. The wine is put immediately from the
vat into large vases of potters’ ware, pointed at the bottom, till they
are nearly full, when they are covered tight and buried. At the end of a
year what is designed for sale is drawn into wooden casks. The dregs in
the vases are put into wooden casks destined to receive wine, with as
much of the liquor as is necessary to prevent them from becoming dry
before use. Casks thus prepared are very valuable. When the wine a year
old is put in, the dregs rise, and make it appear muddy, but afterward
they subside and carry down all the other feculences. The dregs are so
much valued that they are not sold with the wine in the vase, unless
particularly mentioned.
The “new wine,” or “must,” is mentioned, Isa. xlix, 26; Joel i, 5; iii,
18; and Amos ix, 13, under the name עסים. The “mixed wine,” ממסד, Prov.
xxiii, 30, and in Isaiah lxv, 11 rendered “drink-offering,” may mean
wine made stronger and more inebriating by the addition of higher and
more powerful ingredients, such as honey, spices, _defrutum_, or wine
inspissated by boiling it down, myrrh, mandragora, and other strong
drugs. Thus the drunkard is properly described as one that seeketh
“mixed wine,” Prov. xxiii, 30, and is mighty to “mingle strong drink,”
Isa. v, 22; and hence the psalmist took that highly poetical and sublime
image of the cup of God’s wrath, called by Isaiah, li, 17, “the cup of
trembling,” containing, as St. John expresses it, Rev. xiv, 10, pure
wine made yet stronger by a mixture of powerful ingredients: “In the
hand of Yahweh is a cup, and the wine is turbid; it is full of a mixed
liquor, and he poureth out of it,” or rather, “he poureth it out of one
vessel into another,” to mix it perfectly; “verily the dregs thereof,”
the thickest sediment of the strong ingredients mingled with it, “all
the ungodly of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.” “Spiced
wine,” Cant. viii, 2, was wine rendered more palatable and fragrant with
aromatics. This was considered as a great delicacy. Spiced wines were
not peculiar to the Jews; Hafiz speaks of wines “richly bitter, richly
sweet.” The Romans lined their vessels, _amphoræ_, with odorous gums, to
give the wine a warm bitter flavour: and the orientals now use the
admixture of spices to give their wines a favourite relish. The “wine of
Helbon,” Ezek. xxvii, 18, was an excellent kind of wine, known to the
ancients by the name of _chalibonium vinum_. It was made at Damascus;
the Persians had planted vineyards there on purpose, says Posidosius,
quoted by Athenæus. This author says that the kings of Persia used no
other wine. Hosea, xiv, 7, mentions the wine of Lebanon. The wines from
the vineyards on that mount are even to this day in repute; but some
think that this may mean a sweet-scented wine, or wine flavoured with
fragrant gums.