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 taly's modern prodigiousness with wine scarcely begins to tell the story of its people's perennial links to the vine. The nature of the place - the influence of Mediterranean sunshine and mountain air currents on the hillsides of the elongated peninsula and islands - favors what seems to be an almost spontaneous culture of wine.
Italy's wine heritage dates back some 4,000 years to when prehistoric peoples pressed wild grapes into juice which, as if by magic, fermented into wine. The ancient Greeks, expanding into Italy's southern reaches dubbed the colonies Oenotria, the land of wine. Etruscans were subtle and serene practitioners of the art of winemaking in the hills of central Italy, as attested by the art and artifacts left in their spacious tombs. |
| The Romans propagated the cult of Bacchus to all corners of the empire, developing a flourishing trade in wine throughout the Mediterranean lands and beyond. So sophisticated was their knowledge of viticulture and enology that their techniques were not equaled again until the 17th or 18th centuries, when Italians and other Europeans began to regard the making of wine as science rather than mystique. |
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