Today's newspaper articles

Here is the first of what I hope, will be regular posts.

Today’s articles are from “The Australian” and “The Telegraph” (UK) discussing recent archaeological evidence suggesting that French winemaking actually had its origin from the Etruscans.

Gotta love those Etruscans:

French find their wine's Italian

• From: The Times
• June 05, 201312:00AM

THE French have little doubt that they produce the best grapes and finest wines. It will come as something of a blow, therefore, that they learnt the art of winemaking from their Italian neighbours and their first vines were imported from Tuscany.

The latest archaeological evidence suggests that the French began importing wine from the Etruscans in about 500BC. It proved so popular that they imported wine presses, starting 2 1/2 millennia of winemaking.

Winemaking dates back 9000 years to the mountains of Iran, but until now it was not known how viniculture was introduced to France.

Christopher Foss, head of wine at Plumpton College in southern England, said the news would not necessarily be well received in France. "The French are almost so sure of their superiority that they wouldn't even view the Italians as rivals," he said.

"The Italians should be proud though - they're wonderful, creative people and now we know they taught the French to make wine."

Patrick McGovern, an archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, who led the research, said: "Now we know that the Etruscans lured the Gauls into the wine culture by importing wine into southern France. This built up a demand that could only be met by establishing a native industry, likely done by transplanting the domesticated vine from Italy, and enlisting the requisite winemaking expertise from the Etruscans.

"France's rise to world prominence in the wine culture has been well documented, especially since the 12th century, when the Cistercian monks determined by trial and error that chardonnay and pinot noir were the best cultivars to grow in Burgundy," Dr McGovern said. "But what we haven't had is clear chemical evidence, combined with botanical and archaeological data, showing how wine was introduced into France."

Jane Anson, the Bordeaux correspondent for Decanter, said that although the first vines were probably from Italy, Spanish vines were later imported to Bordeaux that could cope better with the colder climate. "I think winemakers now have to grudgingly admit that wine was originally imported from Romans," she said.

The latest archaeological evidence, described in the journal PNAS, was uncovered at the site of Lattara, an ancient port city in the south of France. During an excavation of a merchant quarters inside a walled settlement from 525-475BC, archaeologists recovered a number of amphoras. Their shape suggests they were made at Cisra - modern Cerveteri - in central Italy.

A study of the residue suggests that the ancient wine would not have met modern standards, with evidence that pine resin, rosemary, basil and thyme were added to the drink. At the same site, an ancient pressing platform, made of limestone and dated 425BC, was discovered. Masses of grape seeds and skins were excavated from a container near the press, confirming its purpose.

From that press flowed a juice that through centuries of refinement would delight the palates of the Western world. How galling it must be for the French that the Italians got there first.

Copyright 2013 News Limited. All times AEST (GMT +10).

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Archaeologists find evidence French winemaking had roots in Italy

The earliest evidence of wine in France suggests that it came from Italy, and that it was mixed with basil, thyme and other herbs, according to new research.

1:33AM BST 04 Jun 2013

This early wine may have been used as medicine, and likely was imbibed by the wealthy and powerful before eventually becoming a popular beverage enjoyed by the masses, researchers said.

The artefacts found at the French port site of Lattara, near the southern city of Montpellier, suggest that winemaking took root in France as early as 500 BC, as a result of libations and traditions introduced by the ancient Etruscans in what is now Italy.

The analysis in the US journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is based on ancient wine containers and a limestone press brought by seafaring Etruscan travellers.

"France's rise to world prominence in the wine culture has been well documented," said lead author Patrick McGovern, director of the bimolecular archaeology laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

"What we haven't had is clear chemical evidence, combined with botanical and archaeological data, showing how wine was introduced into France and initiated a native industry."

Researchers studied three containers, known as amphoras, taken from an archeological site in Lattara where merchant quarters lay inside a walled settlement that dates to 525-474 BC.

The samples they chose were unbroken, unwashed and sealed, allowing for unhampered study of the residues inside.

Based on their shape, researchers could reasonably ascertain that the amphoras were made in the city of Cisra (modern Cerveteri) in central Italy.

Using state of the art chemical analysis techniques, researchers found tartaric acid, the biomarker of Eurasian grape wine.

They also discovered pine tree resin and herbs such as rosemary, thyme and basil in the wine residue, suggesting a medicinal use.

Tartaric acid was found on a nearby limestone pressing platform dating to about 425 BC, suggesting it was used as a wine press.

Together, the artefacts provide the earliest known bimolecular archaeological evidence of grape wine and winemaking on French soil, the study said.

"Now we know that the ancient Etruscans lured the Gauls into the Mediterranean wine culture by importing wine into southern France," said McGovern, who studies how wine culture originated in the Middle East some 9,000 years ago, and made its way to modern Europe.

"This built up a demand that could only be met by establishing a native industry, likely done by transplanting the domesticated vine from Italy, and enlisting the requisite winemaking expertise from the Etruscans."

The earliest known chemical evidence for wine was found in what is now northern Iran at the site of Hajji Firiz, and dates to about 5,400-5,000 BC.

Edited by Steve Wilson for telegraph.co.uk