Caecuban wine

Caecuban wine (Latin: Caecubum, Greek: Kaikoubos) came from a small territory, ager Caecubus, at Amyclae in coastal Latium (in the region known today as the Plain of Fondi). Around 70 BC, Varro already regarded this district as a place of legendary wealth. Strabo described the area's reputation for wine in his Geography: "The Caecuban Plain borders on the Gulf of Caieta; and next to the plain comes Fundi, situated on the Appian Way. All these places produce exceedingly good wine; indeed, the Caecuban and the Fundanian and the Setinian belong to the class of wines that are widely famed, as is the case with the Falernian, the Alban and the Statanian." (Geography V.3.6)

To many in the 1st century BC, Caecuban was the best of all wines, smoother than Falernian wine, fuller than Alban wine, strong and intoxicating. It was a white wine which turned fire coloured as it aged. Dioscorides describes it as glykys "sweet". Athenaeus describes it as overpowering and strong, maturing only after many years time (Deipnosophistae, I.27a).

The popularity of Caecuban seemed to have hit its apex in Horace’s time. Following the ascension of Augustus to power, Setinum was declared the Imperial wine namely (according to Pliny) because it did not cause him indigestion and it rose in popularity accordingly (Natural History XIV.61). Pliny noted that the vineyard was starting to fall into neglect when Nero tore up the area, under the pretence of a planned ship canal across the land, in order to undertake excavations to find the legendary treasure of Dido which was supposed to have been buried there. The destruction of Caecuban’s single vineyard extinguished the wine completely; but in Martial’s time, if his words can be relied on, Caecuban wine was still maturing in cellars at Amyclae. Galen is the last person on record to have tasted Caecuban wine, nearly a century after it ceased to be made.

Among the grape varieties that have been speculated to be behind the ancient wine is the Abbuoto grape that is still grown in the Lazio region of central Italy today. However, wine experts and historians such as Jancis Robinson and Julia Harding cast doubt that the red Abbuoto grape was likely responsible for the ancient white wine.