An excerpt from Maine Today which has set off numerous skeptalarms in the old noggin':
In ancient Rome, the physicians of Tiberius and Caligula prescribed Guaranum, the Vino Novello of its day for their illustrious patients. Ancient Romans had a preference for older wines, finding the robust flavors more to their liking than the rough simplicity of Guaranum, the ancient Roman version of Novello. It is important to note that today’s Vino Novello is not your dead emperor’s Guaranum. The modern Novello is softer, rounder, and fruitier than the new wine of even just a few decades ago. These wines have less to do with geography, varietal, or terroir, and everything to do with the essence of the vintage, the unadorned soul of the harvest; if the Novello is great, so the reasoning goes, then the wines of that vintage should hold great promise.
I cannot find any reference to this 'guaranum' in my dictionaries or online (other than in this article) ... it doesn't even look like a Latin word (and is suspiciously close to one of my favourite stimulants, guarana) ... has anyone seen it before?
UPDATE: See now MG's response over at Laudator ...
In ancient Rome, the physicians of Tiberius and Caligula prescribed Guaranum, the Vino Novello of its day for their illustrious patients. Ancient Romans had a preference for older wines, finding the robust flavors more to their liking than the rough simplicity of Guaranum, the ancient Roman version of Novello. It is important to note that today’s Vino Novello is not your dead emperor’s Guaranum. The modern Novello is softer, rounder, and fruitier than the new wine of even just a few decades ago. These wines have less to do with geography, varietal, or terroir, and everything to do with the essence of the vintage, the unadorned soul of the harvest; if the Novello is great, so the reasoning goes, then the wines of that vintage should hold great promise.
I cannot find any reference to this 'guaranum' in my dictionaries or online (other than in this article) ... it doesn't even look like a Latin word (and is suspiciously close to one of my favourite stimulants, guarana) ... has anyone seen it before?
UPDATE: See now MG's response over at Laudator ...