Roman Wine

Wine was considered to be part of a healthy diet and had a medicinal, social and religious role in Roman Society. It has been estimated that every person in the Roman Empire would have consumed a bottle of wine every day.
In vino veritas meaning ‘In wine there is truth’ is a quote by Pliny the Elder.

China holds the earliest evidence (7,000 BCE) of a fermented drink based on a mix of wine and rice.
Evidence has also been found of regular wine production in Georgia (6,000 BCE), Azerbaijan (5,000 BCE), and Greece, Sicily and Armenia (4,500-4,000 BCE).
In Greek Mythology it was Dionysus, the son of Zeus, who invented wine and was known as the God of wine. The Gauls were making wine 500 years before Gaul became a Roman Province.
In Roman Society, wine was considered to be part of a healthy diet and had a medicinal, social and religious role. It has been estimated that every man, woman and slave would have consumed a bottle of wine a day.
Consequently, the Romans perfected the art of winemaking and wrote in great detail about their methods.

Wine was drunk on a daily basis by men and women in all social classes of Roman Society including slaves.
As the Roman Empire expanded out of Italy, viticulture was developed in many of the occupied Provinces, and in particular, Gaul, Hispania, Germania and Britannia.

Wine had an important role in Roman Festivals, particularly:
- Bacchanalia, Liberalia and the Dionysian Mysteries.
- Vinalia Prima (23rd April) held to sample the previous year’s vintage.
- Vinalia Rustica (19th August) held to celebrate the grape harvest.

The Poet Lucan described the technique for making ‘Bullulae’, the Roman word for sparkling wine, known as Spumante in modern Italian.
He described how the Roman wine producers of Campania created an expensive sweet sparkling wine full of bubbles by introducing a sweet grape must into a mature wine which produced a secondary fermentation.
Lucan wrote that the sparkling wine was served at a Banquet attended by Julius Caesar and Cleopatra.

Wine and winemaking was discussed by many Roman writers, such as Pliny the Elder, Columella, Virgil, Varro, Cato the Elder, Horace, Lucan and Palladius.

The best wines came from Wine Estates in Italy.
‘First Growths’
- There was even a system of first growths similar to today’s ‘grand cru’ in French vineyards, discussed by Pliny the Elder.
Pompeii
- Very large wine estates existed around Pompeii.
- Stamps on Amphorae from Pompeian Wine Merchants have been found from Narbonne to Bordeaux.
- The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, caused a major scarcity in wine production and an upsurge in wine prices.
Rome
- Wine was also grown in estates around Rome, on the River Po, in Tuscany and on the Adriatic.

In the Provinces wine was grown on estates in Sicily, Gaul, the Moselle, the Rhine, Spain, Portugal and Britannia.
Beaumes de Venise
- This vineyard in southern Gaul was mentioned by Pliny the Elder.
Jerez
- Wine from Jerez in Spain was described by Martial.

Mas des Tourelles in Beaucaire, France, is the site of an ancient Roman vineyard which has been recreated and produces Roman style wines.

The wine estates around Pompeii