Mulsum was wine heavily sweetened with honey. Often freely dispensed to the plebs at public events to solicit their political support, the demand for it became so great that it was more profitable to sell wine at home than to export it and, by the first century AD; wine had to be imported from Iberia and Gaul. Varro relates the story of an impoverished host serving mulsum to his guests, even though he economized by not drinking it, himself. But mulsum was not always inexpensive or inferior. Martial writes of the best quality being made of Falernian mixed with Attic honey, a drink suitable to be poured by Ganymede, himself, cupbearer to Zeus (XIII.108). The dregs of the wine press should be given to the livestock, suggests Columella, "for they contain the strength both of food and of wine and make the cattle sleek and of good cheer and plump." When soaked in water and allowed to ferment, the grape-skins and stalks left in the vat also produced lora, a thin, bitter brew allocated to slaves. Soldiers and the urban poor usually drank little better.

Augustus was said to have preferred Setine (although Suetonius says it was Rhaetic from Verona). In Pliny's time, the best wine was considered to be Falernian, grown on the slopes of Mount Falernus on the border between Latium and Campania. Next in rank were the wines of the Alban Hills southeast of Rome, and Surrentine and Massic (among others) from the Campania. Finally, there was Mamertine from Messina, first brought into favor by Julius Caesar, who had it served at public banquets.

Faustian Falernian had no equal, which was something he discovered by going through the Palatine cellars, beginning with wines at least twenty years old and tasting each vintage until he found the oldest one that still was sweet and had no bitterness. This would have been served to the emperor in goblets carved of myrrhina (fluorspar) or rock crystal, precious metal or blown glass. (In his Meditations, Aurelius also speaks of Falernian. As a Stoic he was less impressed with the wine he drank and reminds himself: "Surely it is an excellent plan, when you are seated before delicacies and choice foods, to impress upon your imagination...that the Falernian wine is grape juice.")

Wine prices were posted and varied for wines of different quality (one, two, three, or four asses per sextarius or pint; by comparison, a loaf of bread cost two asses). On one wall of one tavern, the price list still can be read, "For one as you can drink wine; for two, you can drink the best; for four, you can drink Falernian." In fact, genuine Falernian, a wine drunk by emperors, was not likely to have been available. The daily drink usually was red wine not more than a year old, drawn from amphorae stored at the counter, and drunk from earthenware mugs.