*Well, he was Italian.
Title: The Life of Galileo Galilei, with Illustrations of the Advancement of Experimental Philosophy
Life of Kepler
Author: John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune
He ate sparingly himself; but was particularly choice in the selection of his wines, which in the latter part of his life were regularly supplied out of the Grand Duke's cellars. This taste gave an additional stimulus to his agricultural pursuits, and many of his leisure hours were spent in the cultivation and superintendence of his vineyards. It should seem that he was considered a good judge of wine; for Viviani has preserved one of his receipts in a collection of miscellaneous experiments. In it he strongly recommends that for wine of the first quality, that juice only should be employed, which is pressed out by the mere weight of the heaped grapes, which would probably be that of the ripest fruit.
The following letter, written in his 74th year, is dated, "From my prison at Arcetri.—I am forced to avail myself of your assistance and favour, agreeably to your obliging offers, in consequence of the excessive chill of the weather, and of old age, and from having drained out my grand stock of a hundred bottles, which I laid in two years ago; not to mention some minor particulars during the last two months, which I received from my Serene Master, the Most Eminent Lord Cardinal, their Highnesses the Princes, and the Most Excellent Duke of Guise, besides cleaning out two barrels of the wine of this country. Now, I beg that with all due diligence and industry, and with consideration, and taking counsel with the most refined palates, you will provide me with two cases, that is to say, with forty flasks of different wines, the most exquisite that you can find: take no thought of the expense, because I stint myself so much in all other pleasures that I can afford to lay out something at the request of Bacchus, without giving offence to his two companions Ceres and Venus. You must be careful to leave out neither Scillo nor Carino (I believe they meant to call them Scylla and Charybdis), nor the country of my master, Archimedes of Syracuse, nor Greek wines, nor clarets, &c. &c. The expense I shall easily be able to satisfy, but not the infinite obligation."
