how about the greeks

[Thomas]

Sure thing Scoop. In general, Italian vine regions south of the Tiber River were once Greek viticultural places: Greece colonized southern Italy and Sicily beginning 1,000 BC.

From their training received at Thrace while trading with Phoenicians, through the year of 121 BC, Greeks ruled the Mediterranean wine world for nearly a millennium (in combination with Carthaginians, who stemmed from Phoenicians in the first place).