Awsome Winemaker or War Criminal, You Decide!

[Thomas]

Roberto, the reason for that Greek reference is simple: most, if not all, southern Italian wines owe a large debt to Greeks who landed in about 1,000 BC, and to Carthaginians who traded with Greeks and who wrote one of the most important wine manuals in history (Mago) that the Romans stole as part of the spoils of PW1 (Punic War 1). Many of the grapes growing in the south of Italy are descendants of the illustrious Greek landing, and that famous 121 BC Opimian burst of Roman wine was, in fact, thanks to mostly Greek grapes and Carthaginian viticulture. Columella once commented that all Roman viticulture owed a debt to Carthage--he was Iberian and he was trained by Carthaginian (latter-day Phoenicians, really) grape growers.

As RAD or other historical types will surely agree, Rome's empire and culture owed a massive debt to Greece.