From Pliny the Elder's book on Natural History, written during the First Century AD:
There is a wine made solely of honey and water. For this purpose it is recommended that rain water should be kept for a period of five years. Those who shew greater skill, content themselves with taking the water just after it has fallen, and boiling it down one third, to which they then add one third in quantity of old honey, and keep the mixture exposed to the days of a hot sun for forty days after the rising of the Dog-star; others, however, rack it off in the course of ten days, and tightly cork the vessels in which it is kept. The beverage is known as *hydromeli,* and with age acquires the flavor of wine. It is nowhere more highly esteemed than in Phrygia.
There is a wine made solely of honey and water. For this purpose it is recommended that rain water should be kept for a period of five years. Those who shew greater skill, content themselves with taking the water just after it has fallen, and boiling it down one third, to which they then add one third in quantity of old honey, and keep the mixture exposed to the days of a hot sun for forty days after the rising of the Dog-star; others, however, rack it off in the course of ten days, and tightly cork the vessels in which it is kept. The beverage is known as *hydromeli,* and with age acquires the flavor of wine. It is nowhere more highly esteemed than in Phrygia.
