Fennel Wine

The Earliest Printed Book on Wine

Citation: 

[1] De Villanova Arnaldus, The earliest printed book on wine. Shuman's, 1943(1235-1311). 

Page 32: How to make the medical wines

Page 39: Fennel Wine Description

Location: 

Year: ~1310 original, republished 1478, republished 1943

Short Biography of Arnaldus de Villanova

Arnaldus de Villanova was most likely born in Aragon between 1235-1240. He may have studied medicine in Naples and Valencia, the latter where he became proficient in Arabic language and medicine. He taught at the Medical school in Montpellier France and most likely lived in France until he fled from the inquisition in 1301 where he went to Italy. From 1301 until his death in 1311 he served many influential people including popes and kings and particularly served the court of the King of Sicily. He died in a shipwreck in 1311 of the coast of Genoa.  It is though he may have written this text near the time of his death. [1]

Nebbiolo Grape Variety

[2] Raimondi, Stefano, et al. "DNA-based genealogy reconstruction of Nebbiolo, Barbera and other ancient grapevine cultivars from northwestern Italy." Scientific Reports 10.1 (2020): 15782. 

[3] Viala, P. & Vermorel, V. Ampélographie. Tome I (Masson, Paris, 1910).

Quoted from [2] "According to Viala and Vermorel [3] the cultivar Pinot was first mentioned in the second half of XIV century, while historical references to Garganega and Nebbiolo go back to early 1300 and the second half of 1200, respectively."

Nebbliolo was choosen for this wine as it is dated to northern Italy at approximatley the same time as Arnaldus de Villanova wrote this recipe. This is by no means proof that it was used for this, but it is plausible that this would have been used for sucha as Villanova makes no mention/instruction as to the type of grape to use.