The modern descendant, Falerno del Massico, comes in both red and white. The fundamentals are there to produce excellent wine: the soil is rich and volcanic, the climate allows the fruit to ripen fully, and the elevation above sea level gives rise to an evening coolness which keeps the grapes healthy. Nevertheless, quality has been uneven. Today's Falernians are only the spindly descendants of the formidable wines of antiquity. Bacchus needs to return to the site of his miracle.

The Massic that Horace served Corvinus would have been at least originally a white wine, as were all the most valuable wines in ancient Rome. But long ageing would have given it a brown colour and a maderised taste. We don't know precisely when Corvinus visited Horace, but it is quite possible that the jar of Massic Horace opened that evening would have been maturing for some 40 years. There are few white wines made today which could withstand such a period of ageing even with modern methods of closure, so given that the amphora in which it was stored probably suffered from an imperfect seal, Horace's Massic might have looked like old sherry or even brandy.  

It would also have been incredibly strong. Pliny says that the distinguishing characteristic of Falernian is that when brought close to a naked flame it would ignite — something it is hard to achieve reliably even with spirits, unless they are warmed. Horace and Corvinus are likely to have had sore heads the following morning, particularly if they drank their wine undiluted. At one point in the poem Horace recalls that even old Cato, the most severe moralist of the Roman republic, liked to warm himself with "merum", or unmixed wine.