38 Facts About Roman wine

The rise of the Roman Empire saw both technological advances in and burgeoning awareness of winemaking, which spread to all parts of the empire.

Roman belief that wine was a daily necessity made the drink "democratic" and ubiquitous; in various qualities, it was available to slaves, peasants and aristocrats, men and women alike.

Evidence of this trade and the far-reaching ancient Roman wine economy is most often found through amphorae – ceramic jars used to store and transport Roman wine and other commodities.

Southern Italy's abundance of indigenous vines provided an ideal opportunity for Roman wine production, giving rise to the Greek name for the region: Oenotria .

The southern Greek colonies probably brought their own Roman wine pressing methods with them and influenced Italian production methods.

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Remarkable for its abundant harvest and the unusually high quality of Roman wine produced, some of the vintage's best examples were being enjoyed over a century later.

One of the most important wine centres of the Roman world was the city of Pompeii, located south of Naples, on the Campanian coast.

The prevalent worship of Bacchus, the god of Roman wine, left depictions of the god on frescoes and archaeological fragments throughout the region.

Amphoras stamped with the emblems of Pompeian merchants have been found across the modern-day remnants of the Roman wine empire, including Bordeaux, Narbonne, Toulouse and Spain.

Trade was the first and farthest-reaching arm of their influence, and Roman wine merchants were eager to trade with enemy and ally alike—from the Carthaginians and peoples of southern Spain to the Celtic tribes in Gaul and Germanic tribes of the Rhine and Danube.

In places like Bordeaux, Mainz, Trier and Colchester where Roman wine garrisons were established, vineyards were planted to supply local need and limit the cost of long-distance trading.

Roman wine settlements were founded and populated by retired soldiers with knowledge of Roman wine viticulture from their families and life before the military; vineyards were planted in their new homelands.

Spanish Roman wine was in Bordeaux before the region produced its own.

Wine historian Hugh Johnson believes this Roman wine was an early ancestor of sherry.

The Roman wine agricultural writer Columella was a native of Cadiz and was duly influenced by the region's viticulture.

Wine historian Hanneke Wilson notes that this Rhone Roman wine was the first truly French Roman wine to receive international acclaim.

Amphoras from Italy indicate that Roman wine was regularly transported to Britain at great expense by sea, around the Iberian Peninsula.

Roman attitudes to wine were complex, especially among the equestrian and senatorial classes.

Roman wine had been raised on his family's farm in Reate, northeast of Rome, and wrote extensively on a variety of subjects in De agri cultura, the oldest surviving work of Latin prose.

Roman wine describes some of the wines of Roman provinces, noting the potential of wines from Spain and the Bordeaux region.

Book 14 deals exclusively with the subject of Roman wine itself, including a ranking of the "first growths" of Rome.

Roman wine described some contemporary varieties, recommending Aminean and Nomentan as the best.

Roman wine defines old wine as one removed from its vintage by at least a year; nonetheless, he notes that while some wines are best consumed young, especially fine wines such as Falernian are meant to be consumed much older.

Roman wine espoused an Epicurean view of taking life's pleasures, including wine, in moderation.

Roman wine writes of serving simple wines for everyday occasions and saving celebrated wines such as Caecuban for special events.

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Horace answered the question posed by the Alexandrian poet Callimachus as to whether water or Roman wine was the preferred drink of poetic inspiration by enthusiastically siding with Cratinus and the Roman wine drinkers.

Romans were particularly interested in the aroma of wine and experimented with various methods of enhancing a wine's bouquet.

Roman wine remarked that the Eugenia had promise, but only if planted in the Colli Albani region.

Roman wine encouraged vine growers to experiment with different plantings to find the best for their areas.

Rome's traditional history has its first king, Romulus, offer the gods libations of milk, not Roman wine, and approve the execution of a wife whose husband caught her drinking Roman wine.

Roman wine cites the much respected arch-conservative Cato the elder as his source, but Cato's own writings make no mention of this.

The invention of wine was usually credited to Liber or his Greek equivalents, Bacchus and Dionysus, who promoted the fertility of human and animal semen, and the "soft seed" of the vine.

Early Roman culture was strongly influenced by the neighbouring Etruscans to the north, and the ancient Greek colonists of Southern Italy both of whom exported wine, and held viticulture in high esteem.

Excessive drinking of undilute Roman wine was thought barbaric and foolish; on the other hand, undilute Roman wine was thought to be beneficial and "warming" for old men.

The Roman wine Senate perceived the cult as a threat to its own authority and Roman wine morality, and suppressed it with extreme ferocity in 186.

The Jews under Roman rule accepted wine as part of their daily life, but regarded negatively the excesses that they associated with Roman "impurities".

Many of the Jewish views on Roman wine were adopted by the new Christian sect that emerged in the 1st century AD.

Roman wine believed that a mixture of old wine and juniper, boiled in a lead pot, could aid in urinary issues and that mixing wine with very acidic pomegranates could cure tapeworms.