The Etruscans: Italian Wine Industry Of The Modern Day

5. Wine drinking predominates in the South of Europe. In the north of Europe beyond the reach of roman rule. Today, the worlds leading producers of wine are France, Italy, and Spain. Beer is drank in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Britain, and Ireland.(pg.89)

Wine has been a part of Western history since the Neolithic Period (8,500-4,000 B.C.), when cultures first started to develop permanent communities, and stopped being nomadic hunter-gatherers (U. Penn, 2000). One of the earliest written records of the consumption of wine is recorded in the Bible and the impact of wine on Mediterranean cultures became more pronounced over the years as the geopolitical situation stabilized in the region under the Roman Empire. Roman Imperialism helped to spread the production of wine across most of the countries in the Empire, which included most of North Africa and Southern Europe (Britannica, 2000). During that same era, wine became ingrained in the Christian faith and is still used in Christian mass today. The close tie between wine and the Christian faith aided to the spread of wine production and wine consumption across Europe

People used wine to show that they are successful and have a higher social status ranking than others, leaving the ones who weren't wealthy and unsuccessful without wine. This began the first socially/economically divided empires. It was used in religious ceremonies, and used medicinally to heal wounds.

Wine was a popular drink back in ancient Rome. Many people desired the consumption of wine as it grew to be an important factor in Rome’s trade. Wine allowed Rome to control more territory. Also many new people started writing books on how wine was produced like Cato the Censor, Varro, and Columella. These works provided insight on how wine played a part in Roman culture. Consumption of wine started bringing taxes on the quantity people drank. However, wine was an essential need in everyday life. The trading of wine helped Rome many beneficial ways because it allowed the Romans to get different goods from many places and it also allowed their empire to expand in territory and influence.

Wine was originally very scarce and exotic, meaning the only people to really drink it were very powerful, prestigious, and privileged people. It was mainly drunk during public meetings and debates, or symposia’s, to express one’s self much more freely. While beer was known to have medicinal benefits, wine was known to clean wounds.

In a History of the Worlds in Six Glasses, Tom Standage describes beer as one of the oldest beverage. According to Standage the discovery of beer was around 10,000 BCE, it was made from grain that grew in the region called Fertile that could be stored and made wet or soaked to turn into beer (p 15). Beer was shared with several people and goes on to become a social drink. Standage goes on to explain about another beverage made with wild grapes vines produced between 9000 and 4000 BCE in northern Iran (p 47). Wine became a symbol of social differentiation and a form of conspicuous consumption. In this essay I will describe how Tom Stranger’s text discusses the relationship between beer and wine with their social behaviors and their

This northern California winescape is “dotted with Italian surnames that suggest traditional roots of pioneering viticulturists” (Helzer 49). For Italians, they adapted their “old-world winemaking traditions to new lands” (Helzer 49), and their success can be partially attributed to the “similarities in landscape, ecology, and climate between California and the rolling countryside of northwestern Italy” (Vaught 885). Furthermore, the success of these immigrants can be attributed to their plethora of access to social capital listed

As a result of the Neolithic Revolution, ‘the ability to store grain began to encourage people to stay in one place” (18) , causing there to be a food surplus. Years later, this surplus of food in societies like Ancient Egypt, expanded to the point that beer had become such a commodity, even “ workers who built the pyramids were paid in beer” (37). Mesopotamia also adopted beer as a form of currency “ taxes in the form of grain and other goods were presented at the temple and were redistributed to fund public works” (33) . Beer even helped develop one of the first forms of writing called cuneiform in which “ Sumerian wage lists and tax receipts” were documented (30). This showed that beer had evolved from just being staple foodstuffs. It had become a way of a convenient form of payment. Wine, unlike beer was expensive in the beginning therefore, it was more valuable than beer. Wine production eventually increased and so did long-distance trade. Maritime trade had increased to the point that it was cheaper to transport over long distance. This meant that there were fewer borders to cross, which resulted in “ fewer taxes and tolls there were to pay” (42). This resulted in Roman wine makers “ shipping their own wine” (58) after dominating Greek wine trade. Wine’s importance in Greek islands was clear by “ the appearance of wine-related imagery on Greek coins” (45) Wine had become so accessible that even the lower class drank

It is said that Etruscans began c. 800 and declining 100 BCE ruling over Rome, a huge part of western Italy; living in what is called Tuscany today. The origination of the Etruscans are unknown to this day, archeologist has put the topic of origin aside for now. Speculations of their beginning exist also. They took part in a large trading system; its distance was enormous; these people would go the distance; making them exceptionally wealthy. Etruscan bronzes along with products from mining and food cultivation were among the products of trade. The most reasonable excuse for their decline is the cities evasion by Rome who then took most of the Etruscans culture as their own.

After living in Florence, and the Tuscan region for almost four months now, I have no doubt that Tuscany is home to some of the most fresh and delicious foods in the world. Over the past

In the second millennium BCE, wine became prominent in the Greek and Roman civilizations. It was extensively used in both cultures to delineate social distinctions. In the beginning, only the wealthy could afford this expensive drink. However as trade and supply expanded, social divisions were shortly based on the

In the past, Italians viewed alcohol as equal to food without a worry of alcohol dependence. It was, and still is, custom for a family to enjoy wine with their meal at dinner. Their choice of beverage is specifically wine. Many areas of the country have their own specialties for winemaking and the land is ideal for growing grapes. There is a large variation between the wines throughout the country due to the soil and family traditions of creating their blend. All of these different factors made wine a main cultural factor of Italian life. Over time, wine has developed into a drink for celebration and socialization and is no longer focused on as a necessary part of meals (Struassner, 2003). Compared to other European countries, Italy has the highest volume of alcohol consumption during an occasion, like a birthday, holiday or special occasion

"The dominant early settlers on the Italian peninsula were a non-Indo-European-speaking people known as the Etruscans" (Coffin & Stacey 168). The Etruscans were among three groups of people from the East that entered Italy as colonists and later as rulers of various segments of the peninsula. The Etruscans came into Italy about 800 B.C.E. following the Adriatic Sea. Although our knowledge of the Etruscans is severely limited by the fact that their language, although written in a Greek alphabet, has not been fully deciphered, traces remain that they left significant evidence of their effect and influence on Rome. The Etruscans left evidence throughout nearly every aspect of Rome including their

Talking about vineyards and one of the first names that comes to my mind is of Saint Chinian, a small and beautiful village located in South France. It has a dry and Mediterranean climate which is best suited for vineyards. It boasts of some of the most famous vineyards and even has a famous wine named after it, called the Saint-Chinian wine which is produced from here only. The vines that are planted on the slopes of the hills surrounding this exotic place produce some of the very high quality wines you would find in the entire world. Saint Chinian is known mainly for its roses, and the unusual whites. The maximum numbers of the vines planted are of reds and roses which are called Grenache, Syrah, and Mouvedre. The rest is white and are named Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Roussanne Carignan, Clairette, Viognier, Bourboulenc, and more. Here's a bit on the different varieties of the Mediterranean wine.

This case describes the global development of wine industry, and how new world wine players occupied the global market share from old world wine producer gradually. It is very interesting that author selected the Britain as the sample stage for the battle between the new world wine campaign and the traditional campaign.