My twin passions for wine and classical Latin literature are two interests that don’t have a great deal of overlap. The Romans enjoyed their tipple, but their vinum was nothing that we would recognize. It was a sweet white wine turned brown by oxidization and often mixed with honey, herbs or salt water. This concoction was probably similar to Sherry, and would have had the same capacity to age. But just like everything else they did (building roads, martyring Christians), the Romans took this to extremes. Pliny the Elder once drank a vintage that was 360 years old.
This may surprise you, but a comprehensive but pedantic understanding of Latin grammar is not usually a sought-after skill for a modern wine critic. Which is why I was so pleased when I recently discovered a bottle from a certain new Ontario winery. This estate is centered on land that was once used to raise racing horses, and to commemorate this, they’ve thrown a jockey on their label and called it by the Roman sounding name: Equifera.
Latin names are popular among Canadian wines (Oculus and last week’s Poetica are prime examples), but I’m not sure why. Does the Vatican buy a lot of wine? Perhaps Latin names sell better on the international market since no one understands what the label is supposed to mean.
In any case, not only will I review the quality of Equifera’s wine, I will go where no writer has gone before and assess the authenticity of their Latin. Are you as excited as I am?
Equifera 2007 Chardonnay, Niagara Peninsula VQA ($7.95, LCBO #134155)
- The Wine: This is a lovely, fragrant (and inexpensive) example of Ontario’s emerging expertise with the Chardonnay grape. The nose has the fresh scent of grass, yoghurt and peach flesh. A soft, gentle palate with a light body provides notes of green apple and spearmint. This is a simple wine, but very easy to drink and tasty — perfect for sipping on the veranda in warm weather. 88/100
- The Latin: Equus is the Roman’s word for “horse” but equifera is unknown to classical Latin. It sounds a little like “aquifer,” which would suggest that this winery is named after a subterranean layer of rock that holds horses instead of fresh water. After spending way too much time on this name, I discovered that some medieval Saxons used the term equifera to denote “a wyld mer” (i.e. a wild mare). But Medieval Latin is little better than pig Latin in my books, so this doesn’t help… these were Saxon barbarians for chrissake: they didn’t even drink wine. 60/100
Matthew Sullivan is a civil litigator in Toronto. He blogs weekly here on lawandstyle.ca. The Short Cellar column also appears in the print edition of Precedent. Matthew can be reached at matthew@lawandstyle.beta-site.ca. Follow along on Twitter: @shortcellar.
Photo by Andrew Bossi