History of wine during Phoenician’s era

The Phoenicians were the Iron Age inhabitants of coastal Central Levant, who also founded new settlements in many Central and Western Mediterranean areas after the late ninth century BC.

Wine and viticulture reached the Phoenicians in the 4th millennium BCE. Byblos became a center for the export of wine, and Canaan for shipping.

The Canaanites and their Phoenician successors, whose heartlands were located in and around modern Lebanon, were renowned winemakers in the ancient Mediterranean.

The Phoenician hinterland produced wine, some of which was regarded highly in ancient sources. The wine would have been grown away from the coast and shipped overland to the Phoenician coast.

Vineyards were scattered along the slopes of the Lebanon mountains and provided the basis for an active wine industry along the Phoenician coast. These were often transported in large quantities in amphorae. Amphoras were the common container of the ancient world, like the plastic gallon jugs of the modern era.

The Phoenicians brought wine to North Africa (Carthage) and Southern Spain (Cadiz) around 800 BCE. As grapes came into new areas they slowly mutated to survive new climates.

The oldest wine-making setup in Western Europe is at Castillo de Doña Blanca, about half-way between Cadiz and Jerez de la Frontera. It is in the Phoenician part of the site, dated around 600 BCE. Phoenician ruins had been discovered at the excavations in Castillo de Doña Blanca, where the remains of wine presses had been found.
History of wine during Phoenician’s era