Lacryma Christi

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Lacryma Christi, (also Lachryma Christi, literally "tear of Christ"), is the name of a celebrated Neapolitan type of wine produced on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius in Campania, Italy.

The name Lacryma Christi comes from an old legend that Christ, crying over Lucifer's fall from heaven, cried his tears on the land and gave divine inspiration to the vines that grew there. The sides of Vesuvius are deeply scarred by past lava flows, and its lower slopes are extremely fertile, dotted with villages and covered with vineyards.

The wine is entirely earthly, but quite enjoyable. The red is garnet in color with a pleasant scent of red fruit and white pepper and a juicy, tart flavor with apple-skin flavors and lemony acidity in balance. The white wine is crisp and dry.

[edit] Lachryma Christi in poetry

Lachryma Christi is an old wine, frequently mentioned by poets and writers. In W. J. Turner's poem Talking with Soldiers, he says:

Mary Magdalena and the vine Lachryma Christi,

Were like ghosts up the ghost of Vesuvius,

As I sat and drank wine with the soldiers,

As I sat in the Inn on the Mountain,

Watching the shadows in my mind.

Another mention comes from Christopher Marlowe in his play Tamburlaine the Great, Part II, where Tamburlaine says:

Lachryma Christi and Calabrian wines

Shall common soldiers drink in quaffing bowls,

Ay, liquid gold, when we have conquer'd him,

Mingled with coral and with orient pearl.

Come, let us banquet and carouse the whiles.

The poet and writer Dan Skelton has even written a poem titled Lachryma Christi, which begins:

I should have thought

it would have been enough,

that anguish caught

in tears that stained the rough

cheeks of the carpenter from Galilee.