Well, quite, obviously meat was as much of a status symbol as a food stuff. I don't think we can take it as far as Bakker does in his latest book but this is an important part of the early mindset. So the Achaeans eating so much meat is basically "look how big and successful we are". Incidentally more meat makes sense in an Asia Minor context where we know consumption was higher than the mainland. Even more interestingly, the Mycenaeans were taller than the Classical Greeks partially due to diet - which included more meats.
Back to wine. I agree that we can't know what the wine was like exactly, the idea is to riff out of what we can safely speculate on. E.g lack of access to sugar is pretty important. However, I'd like to re-iterate that their oinon and our wine aren't necessarily the same. I pointed out how mixed theirs was, like a sloppy cordial almost, did you know they also added grated cheese? Like...w..t...f?
I think we can discuss, with relative safety, things like sweetness. I certainly wouldn't refer to anything as pleasant though!
Speaking of wine the stuff I'm drinking would be snobbed by most. Its cheap. Greek. From Euboia but...it has a sweetness (very sweet!) to it, a freshness reminiscent of something I can't quite place so I like it. It will never be served at the high table. But frankly I've been to many wine tastings and have no idea what the hell everyone is on about.
And now, drinking this, I'm remembering the feeling one gets walking into the old town of Nafplio. To actually hear the wind and feel the sea and the salt on your skin and see how...white and wide and clear everything is. And I'm in the bloody UK and its miserable and everyone is speaking English and now I'm very very sad.
Ah well. Well now I'm really tempted to get some red wine and grate some cheese into it...I will do this. For Textkit. For Science. For Philology.