Rudaki (859-940/941 CE), like many other classical Persian poets, uses the word wine in its many forms and all associated vocabulary in much of his poetry. However, he surpasses many descriptions of intoxication and celebration when he presents the process of wine making in a highly allegorical poem entitled "Mother of Wine," which is unique in terms of narrative quality, meanings, metaphors, and prosody. The poem -- written in the form of qasideh – is, despite general assumptions about this old form, very structured, organized, and unified in presenting its meanings. It seems to have been written to be performed before a live audience and thus reflects the discourse of the Samanids (819–999 CE; the first native dynasty after the Muslim Arab conquest of Persia) who saw themselves to be the continuation of the pre-Islamic Sasanians (224–651 CE). It does so through synchronic and diachronic portrayals and references. Moreover, the uniqueness of Rudaki's poem (translated entirely into English for this project) might be explained by his geographical and temporal context under the Samanids who in many ways differed from the Ghaznavids. After all, as an affiliate of the court of Nasr b. Ahmad (913-43 CE) of the Samanid dynasty, Rudaki very much functioned like a Sasanian minstrel, as a poet-musician, a role that gradually disappeared in the following periods. Through textual an dhistorical analyses, this paper maintains that in all likelihood, Rudaki's concept of wine is also possibly rooted in the pre-Islamic cultural nuances which were brought to the fore by the Samanid's renaissance. This paper also touches upon the reasons why the concept of wine changed a generation or so after Rudaki in the works of such great authors as Sana'i who also seems to have been inspired by the issues of his own time.