COLUMELLA’S De Re Rustica
By: Harry Stephan
Tags: Wine

(Episode 5)

We can package Columella into safe sound bites for the tweeting cognoscenti, but as wine is not a fast food, I am persuaded that those of us who enjoy wine, and especially those of us who understand that soil and climate may influence the development of good wine, will allow for a divergence into Columella’s own words.

De Re Rustica

What is interesting too, is to read what Columella thought about terroir in the 1st century. Not only was he way before his time, but his depth of understanding as a pioneer of the soil is truly remarkable. More importantly, by reading Columella in his own words, we can build an understanding of developments in viticulture and the contrasting opinions of terroir that follow.

“An important consideration is the variety and the habit of the vine, in relation to the conditions of the region. For its cultivation is not the same in every climate and in every soil, nor is there only one variety of that plant; and which kind is best of all is not easy to say, since experience teaches that to every region its own variety is more or less suited. Still the wise farmer will have discovered by test that the kind of vine proper for level country is one which endures mists and frosts without injury; for a hillside, one which withstands drought and wind. He will assign to fat and fertile land a vine that is slender and not too productive by nature; to lean land, a prolific vine; to heavy soil, a vigorous vine that puts forth much wood and foliage; to loose and rich soil, one that has few canes. He will know that it is not proper to commit to a moist place a vine

A fresco from Pompeii depicts Bacchus, the Roman god of wine

with thin-skinned fruit and unusually large grapes, but one whose fruit is tough-skinned, small, and full of seeds; and that plants of a different nature are properly entrusted to a dry site. But in addition to this the proprietor of the place will not be unaware that the nature of the climate — cold or warm, dry or moist, subject to hail and wind or calm, clear or foggy — is a more potent influence. To cold or foggy conditions he will adapt two varieties of vine, either the early ripe, whose fruits mature before cold weather, or those with firm and hard berries, whose clusters drop their blossoms during the foggy season and are presently ripened by freezing weather and frosts, as those of other grapes are ripened by warmth. To a windy and unsettled climate also he will boldly commit the same hardy vines and those of the hard-berried variety. On the other hand, he will entrust to a warm climate the more delicate and heavier-bearing sorts. For a dry climate he will select such as are rotted by rains or continual dews; for a dewy one, those that suffer in dry weather; for one subject to hailstorms, those that have tough and

Alba in Piedmont Italy where Columella farmed his vines

broad leaves for the better protection of the fruit. A calm and clear-skied region does not refuse to admit any kind of vine, though most suitably one whose clusters or berries fall quickly. But if your own wishes are to be considered in the selection of site and climate for your vineyards, the best soil, as Celsus very rightly believes, is neither too compact nor loose, but closer to the loose type; neither poor nor excessively rich, but nearest to the fertile kind; neither flat nor steep, but like plain-land with a rise; neither dry nor wet, but moderately moist; one which does not abound in springs, either on the surface or in the depths of the earth, but which supplies the roots with moisture close at hand — and that is neither bitter nor brackish, lest it spoil the flavour of the wine and check the growth of the vine’s greenery with a kind of scaly rust.

Furthermore, as I have said before, a vineyard does not want an icy climate nor, on the other hand, one that is burning hot, though it thrives better in warm weather than in cold. It is harmed more by rain than by clear weather, and is more kindly disposed to a dry soil than to one that is subject to too much rain. It delights in moderate and gentle breezes, but is liable to injury from squalls. And this is the character of climate and soil that is most commendable.”

After providing an insight into the general characteristics of climate and soil, Columella turns to a discourse on soil itself:

“But in the matter of what is especially suited to vines, this point in general deserves special consideration, as I have stated before, if the soil is easily worked and moderately loose in texture — what we have said is called pulla; not because such soil alone is proper for vineyards, but because it is especially so. For who, though he be but an ordinary farmer, does not know that even the hardest tufa or toph-stone, once it is broken up in pieces and thrown up on the surface, is softened and loosened by storms and cold no less than by summer’s heat; and that during hot weather it is very effective in cooling the roots of the vines and in holding moisture — conditions most suitable for the nourishing of the young shoot. And that for a like reason free gravel, pebbly ground, and loose stones are approved on condition, however, that they are mixed with fat soil, for they meet with the greatest disapproval in lean ground. Moreover, the flint-stone also,

The vineyards surrounding Alba

in my opinion, is friendly to vineyards when it is moderately well covered with earth, because, being cold and retentive of moisture, it does not allow the roots to thirst during the rising of the Dog-star. Hyginus indeed, following Tremelius, asserts that the bases of mountains, which have received the soil that washes down from their summits, or even valley lands that have been formed by the soil deposits of rivers and floods, are especially suited for vineyards; and I do not disagree. Clayey soil is considered serviceable for the vine: but, by itself, the clay which potters use, and which some call argilla, is most unfriendly; and no less so is hungry gravel and, as Julius Atticus says, everything that makes a shriveled shoot — that being soil which is either wet or salty, or sour too, or thirsty and extremely dry. Still the ancients approved black and reddish sand when mixed with vigorous earth; for they said that ground containing red toph-stone, unless aided with manure, produced puny vines. Ruddle, as the same Atticus says, is heavy and does not offer roots an easy hold. But the same soil is nourishing to the vine when once it has obtained a hold, though it is more difficult to work, since you cannot dig it when wet because it is very sticky, nor when too dry because it is hard beyond measure.”

We can read in this last passage that Columella put a huge emphasis on the type of soil best suited to viticulture. Rather than a general bearing of North by Northwest, his words below again become quite explicit:

“But that we may not now wander through the endless varieties of soil, it will be not out of place to call to mind a standard rule, as it were, of Julius Graecinus which has been laid down for the appraisal of land suitable for vineyards. For that same Graecinus speaks as follows: That some land is hot or cold, damp or dry, loose or compact, light or heavy, fat or lean; but that soil which is excessively hot cannot support the vine, because it burns it, nor can the very cold soil, because it allows no action of the roots when they are benumbed and chilled, as it were, by excessive cold, — for they extend themselves only when they are drawn out by moderate warmth: that soil of more than the proper moisture causes rotting of the plants that are set, while, on the other hand, excessive dryness deprives the plants of their natural sustenance and either kills them entirely or makes them scaly and shriveled: that very compact ground does not absorb

Living amongst the vines in Piedmont

the rains, does not readily allow the circulation of air, is very easily broken through, and affords cracks through which the sun penetrates to the roots of the plants; and the same binds and chokes the plants, which are, so to speak, imprisoned and confined: that soil which is immoderately loose allows rains to pass through it as through a funnel, and is then completely dried out and parched by sun and wind: that heavy ground can hardly be subdued by any cultivation, while light ground can hardly be kept up by any: that the fattest and most fertile soil suffers from rankness of growth, the lean and poor soil from barrenness. There is need, he says, of much intermixture among these so different extremes, as is requisite also in our own bodies, whose well-being depends on a fixed and, so to speak, balanced proportion of the hot and the cold, the moist and the dry, the compact and the loose. And yet, in the case of land which is designed for vineyards, he says that this proportion should not be placed in equipoise but should incline more in one direction or the other, so that the land may be rather warm than cold, rather dry than wet, rather loose than compact, and so on in any like matters to which one who plants vineyards should direct a careful gaze. All of this, in my opinion, is of greater advantage when climatic conditions also are favourable: and in this matter there is long-standing disagreement as to what quarter of the heavens the vineyards should face, Saserna facing the east especially, and next to that the south, and then the west; Tremelius Scrofa thinking a southern exposure superior to all others, Vergil explicitly rejecting the west in the words,

Nor slope your vineyards toward the setting sun;

and Democritus and Mago commending the northern quarter of the heavens, because they think that vineyards exposed to it become the most productive, even though they may be surpassed in the quality of their wine. To us it has seemed best to direct in general that vineyards have, in cold regions, a southern exposure, and that in warm ones they face the east; on condition, however, that they are not harassed by the south and south-east winds, as are the maritime coasts of Baetica. If, however, your tracts are subject to the aforementioned winds, it will be better to entrust them to the north or the west wind; but in hot provinces, such as Egypt and Numidia, they will be exposed more properly to the north alone.”

Although Columella provided a general discourse on the best available terroir, opinions nonetheless hold in today’s world that the concept really means that wines from a certain terroir are unique, incapable of being reproduced outside that area, even if the variety and winemaking techniques are painstakingly duplicated. Winemakers in Burgundy, for example, do not believe that they are producing Pinot Noir that happens to be grown in Burgundy, but that they are producing unique Burgundian wines that happen to be made from Pinot Noir. This entire issue is debatable, but stems largely from the notion, born during the Middle Ages, that the search for the perfect terroir was not as ephemeral as the search for the Holy Grail or Hamlet’s quest for Ophelia’s hand in marriage. General research on the work of the Cistercian monks demonstrates quite clearly that the quest for the perfect terroir does shape opinions today, especially in France. We can of course argue that this is simply marketing blather or a quest for a relatively unique position in the world of wine, but certain French vineyards have stood the test of time so to speak and deserve recognition. We shall therefore continue our quest to find Sartori’s ‘what is’ by following the work of the Benedictine and the Cistercian monks in their quest to find the perfect climats or finages of Burgundy.