Need Another Reason to Pour Yourself a Glass of Wine

Sarcophagus with a vintage scene. Roman, A.D. 290-300. Marble. Getty Villa, Malibu.CC Flickr User Davide Ferro

Besides the taste and effects, in recent years, scientists have been praising the antioxidant value of some component of red wine. Do you need another reason to open a bottle? Vinalia is coming up. This was a wine tasting festival in ancient Rome.

From Pliny XVIII:

The life of men in early times was rude and illiterate; but nevertheless it will be found that mere observation was not less ingenious among them than theory is now. There were three seasons which they had to fear for their crops, and on this account they instituted the holidays and festivals of Robigalia, Floralia and Vinalia. Numa in the eleventh year of his reign established the Feast of Robigalia, which is 710-672 B.C. now kept on April 25, because that is about the time when the crops are liable to be attacked by mildew.... So the same people in 238 BC in obedience to the Sibyl's oracles, instituted the Floralia on April 23, in order that all vegetation might shed its blossom favourably.... The First Vinalia established in former days on April 23 for tasting the wines....