| Wine has a long and venerable history, with | | | | population. What remained in the wine press after |
| references to its use cropping up in ancient texts | | | | crushing the grapes - seeds and skins mainly - |
| from thousands of years ago - not least, of | | | | was often fed to livestock, or alternatively |
| course, in the Bible. We know for a fact that it | | | | brewed into a very low quality 'wine' and given to |
| was firmly established in the Middle Eastern culture | | | | the slaves who'd grown the grapes. |
| of around two thousand years ago, and for it to | | | | We also know that winemaking was familiar to |
| be so commonplace at that time it must have | | | | the ancient Greeks, from whom the Romans |
| been around for quite some time before that. | | | | learned so much, and there's physical evidence of |
| Viticulture was certainly a large part of the | | | | this in the form of a stone wine press found in a |
| economy of the Roman Empire, and the spread | | | | Minoan villa on the island of Crete, dating back to |
| of Roman civilisation included the spread of wine | | | | around 1600 BC. The winemaking facilities |
| growing and wine drinking as the colonising soldiers | | | | discovered there appeared to be quite advanced |
| moved across the Old World. In ancient Rome, a | | | | and sophisticated, suggesting that the Minoans had |
| common form of wine was known as mulsum, | | | | been practising the art of winemaking for a |
| heavily sweetened with honey, and produced on | | | | considerable period before that date. |
| large agrarian estates largely by the slave | | | | |