The Romans are usually credited with having contributed more to the advance of wine than any other people. In fact, they probably were not wine drinkers, or at least not wine growers, when they first embarked on their expansion, but instead acquired the habit from the Etruscans, a people derived either from Minoan or Mycenaean migrants who settled in central Italy. But there is little doubt that wine growing flourished under Roman influence. It was established virtually everywhere on the Italian peninsula, both on large noble-owned estates and as a part of peasant farming systems.
Wine also expanded with the empire. A nearby source of supply was needed for garrisons and administrators, and within Rome itself there was a continuous demand for new wines among the upper classes. Although archaeological evidence indicates that some of the Celtic, Iber, Germanic, and Slavic peoples knew how to make wine, they appear to have been largely beer or mead drinkers. Wherever the Romans imposed their rule, however, fundamental changes in wine’s regional significance followed. The Romans not only brought with them a wine-drinking tradition that was copied by others but also set about systematically identifying and developing those areas best suited to vineyards. Key considerations included a nearby market, usually an important town, a riverine or coastal location to facilitate transport, and where possible, slopes for correct exposure to the sun and for facilitating the flow of air and soil moisture drainage.
The greatest amount of Roman wine-growing attention was focused on Gaul and the Rhineland. Today, virtually every important wine region in France and Germany, such as Champagne, Burgundy, Bordeaux, and the Rhineland (and many lesser ones as well) can find prominent Roman influences in its history. Viticulture was a particular specialty of the Romans; they created numerous new grape varieties that were better adapted to more northerly sites and they improved methods of vine cultivation, especially techniques related to pruning and training. Although there is, perhaps, a tendency to credit the Romans with too much in many facets of culture and technology, it is quite clear that the map of wine growing would have been drawn much differently without them.
World History
