Oinómeli — honeyed spiced wine
Hot or warm wine sweetened with honey and scented with pepper, cinnamon, nard, and mastic. A festive and comforting drink, halfway between pleasure and remedy, inherited from Roman conditum.
Hot or warm wine sweetened with honey and scented with pepper, cinnamon, nard, and mastic. A festive and comforting drink, halfway between pleasure and remedy, inherited from Roman conditum.
Draw your cup near, and let me serve you as was done at my father's table. We took the generous wine of our islands, we melted golden honey into it, then enlivened it with pepper, cinnamon, and a grain of mastic from Chios that perfumes. Warm, it warms the blood and strengthens the stomach — I who have read Galen and watched over the sick in our great hospital, I tell you: this beverage rejoices the body as much as the soul, provided one drinks it with measure, for excess suits barbarians, not people of reason.
- •Greek wine (red or resinated white) — a pitcher (base)
- •Honey — generously (sweetness)
- •Black pepper, cinnamon — a few grains, a stick (warm spices)
- •Mastic of Chios, nard, or clove — a tear (signature perfume)
Oinómeli — honeyed spiced wine
Hot or warm wine sweetened with honey and scented with pepper, cinnamon, nard, and mastic. A festive and comforting drink, halfway between pleasure and remedy, inherited from Roman conditum.
Why this dish? At the imperial table of the Blachernae, Greek wine was served spiced with honey and Eastern aromatics. Anna, versed in Galenic medicine to the point of running a hospital, knew that this honeyed wine also served as a warming cordial and digestive.
Draw your cup near, and let me serve you as was done at my father's table. We took the generous wine of our islands, we melted golden honey into it, then enlivened it with pepper, cinnamon, and a grain of mastic from Chios that perfumes. Warm, it warms the blood and strengthens the stomach — I who have read Galen and watched over the sick in our great hospital, I tell you: this beverage rejoices the body as much as the soul, provided one drinks it with measure, for excess suits barbarians, not people of reason.
Ingredients (period version)
- Greek wine (red or resinated white) — a pitcher (base)
- Honey — generously (sweetness)
- Black pepper, cinnamon — a few grains, a stick (warm spices)
- Mastic of Chios, nard, or clove — a tear (signature perfume)
Ingredients
- Full-bodied red wine — 75 cl (1 bottle) (base)
- Honey — 4 to 6 tbsp (sweetness)
- Cinnamon stick — 1 (warm spice)
- Black peppercorns — 6 grains (spice)
- Tear of mastic from Chios (or 2 cloves) — 1 small grain (signature perfume)
Method
- Pour the wine into a saucepan with the honey.
- Add cinnamon, peppercorns, and mastic (or cloves).
- Heat gently without ever boiling, stirring to dissolve the honey.
- Let infuse off the heat for 10 minutes, covered.
- Strain and serve warm in cups.
How it was made : Byzantine oinómeli descends from Roman conditum/mulsum. Byzantine medical treatises, in the line of Galen and Dioscorides that Anna knew, recommended honeyed spiced wines as digestive tonics and warmers. Mastic from Chios, resin of a shrub from the island, was a typically Aegean aromatic signature.
The contemporary twist : Served in a non-alcoholic version with hot spiced grape juice, so that the whole table — including the youngest — can share the princess's drink.
Sources : Andrew Dalby, Flavours of Byzantium, Prospect Books, 2003 · Apicius / tradition du conditum paradoxum (Roman heritage)
Anna Komnene · Charactorium
