The earliest recorded mention of using resin with wine
amphorae is by the first-century Roman writer
Columella, who detailed in his work "
De Re Rustica" (12,20,3 and 12,22,2) the different types of resin that could be used to seal a container or be mixed into the wine. The Roman settlements in
Illyria,
Cisalpine Gaul and
Gallia Narbonensis did not use resin-coated amphorae due to the lack of suitable local pine trees and began to develop solid, less leak-prone wooden barrels in the 1st century AD. By the 3rd century, barrel making was prevalent throughout the
Roman Empire. The exception was the eastern empire regions of
Byzantium which had developed a taste for the strong, pungent wine and continued to produce resinated wine long after the
Western Roman Empire stopped. The difference in taste between the two empires took center stage in the work of the historian
Liutprand of Cremona and his
Relatio de Legatione Constantinopolitana. In 968, Liutprand was sent to
Constantinople to arrange a marriage between the daughter of the late Emperor
Romanos II and the future Holy Roman Emperor
Otto II. According to Liutprand, he was treated very rudely and in an undignified manner by the court of
Nikephoros II, being served
goat stuffed with
onion and served in
fish sauce and "undrinkable" wine mixed with resin,
pitch and
gypsum—very offensive to his Germanic tastes. ==Wine regions==