As great wine enthusiasts, we all hope that the next harvest will be abundant and tasty. The forecasts are favorable: according to Riccardo Cotarella, president of Assoenologi – the Italian Association of Oenologists – the 2025 harvest in the Bel Paese should exceed the 2024 yield by 10%, which was already a good 44 million hectoliters (interview with the newspaper La Repubblica on August 6, 2025).

But in times of climate change, you never know! Better to be prepared, perhaps taking inspiration from the ancient Romans who, precisely on August 19, offered grapes and wine to the god Jupiter to keep the weather mild in view of the September harvest.

So let's raise our glasses high and toast!

And let's discover the important Roman festivals dedicated to wine...

The Rites of the Vinalia, between sacred and profane

Wine was so important to the Romans that, since the founding of the city, two festivals were dedicated to it, the Vinalia (from Vinum, the Latin word for Wine), on April 23 and August 19, both aimed at obtaining the favor of Jupiter (and Venus):

·       The Vinalia Priora (or Vinalia Urbana because it was mainly held in the city) took place on April 23 and was the occasion to "uncork" for the first time the wine produced from the previous year's harvest. Understandably, it was a great celebration: libations were performed and wine was poured in temples, on altars or objects considered sacred, as an offering to the deity; and many of those who participated came into contact with the gods, thanks to the altered state of consciousness produced by heavy drinking!

·       on August 19 the Vinalia Rustica (because it took place in the countryside, also called Vinalia Altera) celebrated a auspicious and propitiatory rite for the imminent grape harvest; the “auspicatio vindemiae” was a religious, sacred, and imposing ceremony that marked the end of the resting period and the beginning of activities related to the grape harvest, with the hope that it would bring good crops.

How was the Propitiatory Rite performed?

During the Vinalia Rustica on August 19, the Flamen Dialis, the supreme priest of Jupiter, supervised the rites and, during the ceremony known as auspicatio vindemiae, as recounted by the Roman agronomist and scholar Marcus Terentius Varro (De lingua latina VI), “he sacrifices a lamb to Jupiter, and between the extraction of the victim's entrails and the offering of the same to the god, he himself first picks a grape cluster” which was pressed as an offering to the god. This practice aimed to obtain the deity's favor to avoid potentially damaging storms for the vines or diseases that could compromise the not yet ripe harvest – hence the term “auspicatio” for the ceremony.

"This festival serves to calm the weather" states Pliny the Elder in his "Natural History"; and Virgil in the "Georgics" reiterates the concept: "The grape is ripe, and Jupiter inspires fear".

The Vinalia Rustica and the myth of Aeneas

The roots of the Vinalia Rustica lie in the archaic Roman period, in the mythology of Aeneas, the Trojan prince son of Anchises and Venus / Aphrodite who, after the fall of Troy, finds in Italy a new land for his people. Aeneas, The hero destined to found the noble and divine lineage of Rome, however, faces opposition from the Etruscans and the Rutuli. To obtain victory against the Etruscan tyrant Mezentius and his ally Turnus, King of the Rutuli, Aeneas, on the suggestion of his mother Venus, tried to win the favor of Jupiter by offering him all the wine of the next harvest.

It really seems that Jupiter accepted the deal – also because the wicked Mezentius, greedy and gluttonous, kept all the wine for himself!

And so, in commemoration of this founding event for the history of Rome and as a sign of perpetual gratitude, the Romans established the Vinalia Rustica: just as Aeneas offered the wine of the harvest to obtain Jupiter's help against a military enemy, his descendants continued the tradition to ensure protection against a different enemy: bad weather.

Venus, goddess of beauty and agriculture

Before being the goddess of love, Venus was "simply" a goddess of gardens, protector of all growing plants – including vines.

"Venus... who protects the garden... in her honor the Vinalia Rustica was established" writes Varro in his "On Agriculture"; and in the text "On the Latin Language" he reports that "August 19 was called Vinalia Rustica... because at that time (in 295 B.C., the temple of Venus Obsequens – editor's note) a temple was dedicated to Venus and the garden areas were reserved for her, and on that day the gardeners went on vacation". Other Roman writers also report how, on the day of the Vinalia Rustica, popular festivals were held around the temples of Venus in Rome, which common citizens celebrated with wine and joy.

The Importance of Wine in Ancient Rome

It is likely that the Vinalia festivals evolved over time, with an initial phase in which the celebrations were mainly directed to Jupiter at a time when wine was rare and therefore precious, almost sacred, and the quantity available to the people was very modest. In this situation, the donation of grapes (to the gods) constituted a true sacrifice.

With the arrival of abundance, also thanks to the innovative cultivation and winemaking techniques developed by the Romans, popular celebrations were added to the sacred part of the ceremonies, true festivals to celebrate the first opening of the previous wine (the Vinalia Priora, April 23) and to wish for the abundance of the next harvest (the Vinalia Rustica, August 19).

Wine can finally be brought to the table!

The Vinalia sanctioned the possibility to proceed with the grape harvest, because before the celebration on August 19 it was forbidden; and the moment when it was finally possible to start drinking (the wine from the previous year) – April 23.

Varro recounts that on the gates of Tusculum, the area on the hills near Rome, now known as “Castelli Romani” where the main celebration of the Vinalia was held, there was a clear inscription: “New wine must not be brought into the city until the Vinalia has been proclaimed.”

And what are you waiting for to toast?

 While waiting for the wine from the next harvest, Arswine.it invites you to celebrate today's festival by toasting immediately with what is already in your cellar and ordering more, taking advantage of a special 5% discount - valid only for three days from today – ➡️🍷 Lazio  

 

 

Recommended sources and texts

Beard, M, North, J and Price, S, “Religions of Rome”

Cato the Censor, “On Agriculture”

Dumezil, “Archaic Roman Religion”

Faas Patrick, “ Around the Roman Table”

History and Archeology website

Homer, “Iliad”

Ovid, “Fasti”

Phillips Rod, “A Short History of Wine”

Pliny, “Natural History”

Price and Kearns, “The Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion”

Varro, “On Agriculture”; and “On the Latin Language”

Virgil, “Georgics”; and “Aeneid”