Toasts
TOASTS (DOC)
In the words of the Greek geographer Strabo, miasto Brindisi – which has been the center of viticulture since ancient times, from which one of the most famous wines of Apulia borrowed its name – was founded by a group of settlers, coming from the capital of Crete, Knossos, who came to those areas, following Theseus. Cretans settled in Salento, in the southern part of Apulla in the sixteenth century BC.
The coat of arms of Brindisi features a deer's head and two columns, which are supposed to represent the pillars erected by the Romans at the end of the Via Appia – main artery, connecting Rome with this only natural port of the Adriatic coast, referred to in ancient times as the "port of the East".
The deer's head, on the other hand, is a reference to the Messapian word brunda, denoting the head of a deer, from which the former name of the city came - Brundisium. This name refers to the unique shape of the port, which had no equal in all of Italy. In Brindisi, the coast of Apulia cuts a considerable distance inland through a wide and deep fjord., which is divided into two arms, resembling horns in their shape. The city is located on a peninsula between two branches of the port.
However, a popular legend attributes the name of the city to non-Greek tradition, but the custom of Roman sailors, preparing for an expedition towards Greece or the Middle East. Before going to sea, they were to erect chalices full of wine., wishing each other happiness. In Italian, a toast is just Brindisi. Wines from Apulia were often hosted on the tables of ancient Rome. In his writings Tibullus, Pliny the Elder and Horace gave us many details about the cultivation and vinification of vines in this region. Pliny often wrote about the wines of Canusium and Brundisium, while Horace praises them in his "Merum Tarantoium”. Word merum was used by the Romans to distinguish real wines from Apulia, characterized by full construction from ordinary wines or other liquors, that didn't have that lip-filling aftertaste, which the ancients called Vinum.
Word merum has survived to this day in the dialect of Puglia, in a slightly modified form mejre. Without mejre, i.e. local wine, the meal is considered incomplete, devoid of balance and taste.