The document discusses the history of wine trading around the Mediterranean Sea. It describes how Phoenicians, Egyptians, Greeks, Gauls/Celts, and Romans influenced winemaking and viticulture through their trading activities. Their trading introduced grapes, wine production techniques, and barrel aging to different regions. Today, the Mediterranean continues to be an important shipping route, though pollution and economic challenges threaten its future.
2. Introduction
The Mediterranean Sea is connected to the Atlantic
Ocean and is completely surrounded by three main
continents; Europe, Africa and Asia.
The name Mediterranean is derived from the Latin
meaning of “inland”.
The Mediterranean sea was an important route for
merchants and travelers of ancient and modern
times.
The connection allowed the trade and cultural
exchange between many very important
civilisations, such as the Greeks, Egyptians and
Romans, to name a few.
3. Introduction
Many of these civilisations took advantage and
explored other countries, and in some cases
conquered other civilisations.
One of the major outcomes from the Mediterranean
trading was the introduction of Viticulture and
Winemaking to Western Europe.
Before such time, much of Western Europe had not
been familiar with the art of wine.
5. Importance of Wine
The trading of wine and viticultural practices made a
huge impact on todays modern society.
The trading of wine enable the opportunities to
build trade relationships with other societies.
It was used as a Medicinal product, and used a lot in
spiritual ceremonies.
Wine was also used as a trading currency that was
used to buy metals, grains and other commodities.
6. Civilisation Influence
Throughout out the course of history, there has
been four main civilisations that have influence the
Mediterranean trading of wine products, these are:
Phoenician
Egyptian
Greeks
Gaul and the Celts
Roman
7. Phoenician
The Phoenician civilisations were one for the first wine
traders to trade using the Mediterranean sea.
Wine trading occurred between 2300BC and 65BC.
The Phoenician were considered the most dominant
traders of their time and made many trading posts along
Sisilly’s coast and other islands.
Sourced From: http://www.lost-civilizations.net/phoenicians-overview.html.
9. Phoenician
Influence on
Wine
• Between the period of 1000
BC and 1100 BC the
Phoenician people
intensively traded wine
through out the
Mediterranean.
• During this time the
Phoenician people brought
their skills of winemaking
and viticulture to other
countries, for example Egypt.
• This newly found knowledge
of wine was the bases of the
Mediterranean wine trade.
10. Egypt
• It is thought that
Mesopotamians introduced
wine to Egypt.
• It is also thought that the
grapevine was introduce to
Egypt from Canaan during
the bronze age (3500BC –
500BC).
• The Egyptians believed that
wine was drunken by gods,
kings and nobles.
• It was also believed that the
five wines constituted
canonical set of provision, or
“fixed menu”, for the after
live
Sourced From: http://www.winerackstore.com/wine_rack_history.php
11. Egyptian Viticulture & Winemaking
• The Egyptian People were the first civilisation to
define free run juice and pressings.
• They also created the the press which was
constructed from a sack that was twisted between
two poles, as seen in the above picture.
• Most of the production, of white and red varieties,
were produced near the Nile Delta to allow trading.
Sourced From: http://www.winelit.slsa.sa.gov.au/winelore.htm
12. Greece
• Earliest sign of
winemaking was
1600BC
• The Geek wine trading
was one of the most
extensive trading
routes of its age.
There civilisation were
trading within the
Mediterranean sea
and internationally.
• Approximately ten
million liters were
shipped to Gaul each
year via Massalia.
14. Greek Influence on
Winemaking and Viticulture
• The Greek civilisation
had a great influence
on the study of :
• Different vineyard
soils
• Vine Propagation
• Canopy and Yield
management
• Blending wines
• Maceration
• And the sweetening
of white and red
wines
Sourced From:
http://www.tapchiruouvang.com/images/cmsfiles/images/making_an
cient_roman_wine.jpg
15. Gaul & The Celts
• Major trading partners
with the Greeks. This
lead to the introduction
of wine, viticultural
techniques and
winemaking techniques.
• They were large
consumers of wine.
• Their large consumption
of wine (100,000,000L
per year) lead to the
creation of the wooden
barrel to allow storage.
Sourced From:
http://romanhistorybooksandmore.freeservers.com/images_t/x_barr
el2.jpg
16. Gaul & The Celts
• On the Left there is a picture showing the land that was claimed to be
apart of Gaul
• On the right hand side there is a picture showing one of the old Gaul
wine vessels that were used to transport wine from Northern Italy to
Central Gaul. This occurred somewhere between 63BC and 23 AD
Sourced From: http://www.athenapub.com/gaul3prz.GIF And http://www.snooth.com/articles/the-history-of-wine-part-ii-wine-storage-
barrels/?viewall=1
17. Rome
• The Romans believed
that wine was to be
consumed by all
classes of society.
• The trading of wine
became an important
factor to the Roman
economy.
• The central trading
center for Rome was
Pompeii.
Sourced From:
http://www.theitalianwineconnection.com/Wine_articles/Intermediate_Italia
n_Wine_Articles/antique_roman_wine_bottle.jpg
18. Roman Trading Routes
Sourced From: http://regentsprep.org/regents/global/themes/interdependence/images/roman.gif
19. Romans Influence on
Winemaking and Viticulture
Many of todays techniques and principles found in
modern winemaking and viticulture were based on
the techniques used by the Romans, for example;
De-acidification was used with the aid of chalk or
marble dust
White wine was aged on lees to enhance Flavor
And small holes were drilled into the fermenting
vessels to release Carbon Dioxide
20. Romans Influence on Wine
and viticulture
Many of the European country's that are now
famous for winemaking were established due to the
Romans introducing vines to there regions after they
had conquered them.
The Romans recorded and observed many of todays
pest and disease and made relationships to different
species of grape vine and their susceptibility to
disease.
21. Modern Mediterranean
Trading
One of the most used shipping areas for the world.
Main industries are:
1. Merchant Vessels - Approximately 370,000,000 tones of
oil are transported annually in the Mediterranean Sea
2. Tourism - Attracting approximately one third of the
world's international tourists
3. Aquaculture - Currently accounts for 30% of the fish
protein consumed worldwide
It has been reported that approximately 220,000 trading
vessel cross the Mediterranean Sea each year
22. Challenges From the
Future
One of the biggest challenges for the Mediterranean
Sea is the economic crisis which has effected the
trading between different nations.
Another challenge that the Mediterranean Sea is facing
is the pollution of the water due to an average of 10 oil
spills per year, and pollution from shipping vessels.
Soured From http://media1.policymic.com/site/articles/3418/photo.jpg
23. References
Johnson, H., Robinson, J.. (2001). The world atlas of wine. (5th ed.). London, Great Britain: Mitchell
Beazley
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N.A. (2013, May 12). Egyptian wine. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_wine
N.A. (2013, June 03). Ancient greece and wine. Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greece_and_wine
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Rome_and_wine
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Robinson, J. (1994). The oxford companion to wine. Oxford, Great Britain: Oxford University Press