🍷 Phoenicians

The Phoenicians were an ancient seafaring people who lived on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, in the area of present-day Lebanon and neighbouring lands. They were merchants and sailors and founded colonial cities across the Mediterranean, among them Carthage. Their civilisation flourished from about 1500 BC until the Hellenistic era.

The Phoenicians carried wine and grew vines. Along with goods they carried cuttings and winemaking knowledge to North Africa, Sicily and Spain. Wine was shipped in clay amphorae on boats. This amphora trade began with the Phoenicians and Greeks and then became usual across antiquity. Wine is thought to have reached the south of the Iberian Peninsula through Phoenician ports. The Carthaginian author Mago wrote a work on farming, including viticulture, which was later translated into Latin.

The Phoenicians are tied to the amphora trade and to the history of wine in general. Thanks to them the vine spread around the Mediterranean, where winemaking was later developed by the Greeks and Romans. Much of this history is known from finds on the seabed, such as sunken ships carrying amphorae.