On Apr 4, 12:52*pm, Young Martle > wrote:
> On Sat, 3 Apr 2010 21:51:23 -0700 (PDT), cwdjrxyz
>
> > wrote:
> >SNIP<
> >others are made today. The Romans sometimes heat treated amphoras of
> >their favorite wines and aged them for very many years - an early
> >version of Madeira?
> >SNIP>
>
> Not based any knowledge of wine making for that time, I was think
> Madeira.

In the 1981 edition of Alexis Lichine's New Encyclopedia of Wine and
Spirits, you find much information about ancient Roman wines starting
on p2.

" But the fumarium was intended to mellow the wine by heat rather than
by smoke - the principle was not unlike that of maturing Madeira near
ovens - and the jars were protected by a thick coat of plaster or
pitch."
" In old age, some of them would be, as Tovey said, 'reduced to a
syrup and rendered so muddy and thick they had to be strained through
cloths and dissolved in hot water'."
"The wines most prized in Rome were luscious, less in need of acrid
preservatives - they probably resembled the Lagrima of today."