Ancient Rome and wine Gaul. The Romans established lucrative trading relations with local tribes of Gaul, despite their potential to produce wine of their own. The Gallic tribes paid high prices for Roman wine, with a single amphora worth the value of a slave. From the Mediterranean coast, the Romans pushed further up the Rhone Valley, to areas where olives and figs were unable to grow but where oak trees were still found. As a result of their experience in what is now northeastern Italy, the Romans knew that regions where "Quercus ilex" were found had climates sufficiently warm enough to allow the full
Ancient Greece and wine was discovered as another means of adding sweetness to the wine. The Greeks believed wine could also be improved by adding resin, herbs, spice, seawater, brine, oil and perfume. Retsina, mulled wine and vermouth are some modern examples of these practices. As late as the Second Council of Constantinople in 691 AD, exactly three centuries after Theodosius closed the temples, a canon was issued expressly forbidding the cries of "Dionysus!" from the wine treaders, who still were masked; it was recommended that ""Kyrie eleison"" be substituted. In ancient times, the reputation of a wine depended on the region the wine