The Phoenicians were one of the first ancient cultures to have had a significant effect on the history of wine.[1] The Phoenicians were an ancient civilization centered in the northern reaches of Canaan along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, in what is now modern day Lebanon. Between the years 1550 BC and 300 BC the Phoenicians developed a maritime trading culture that expanded their influence from the Levant to North Africa, Greek Isles, Sicily, and the Iberian peninsula. Through contact and trade, they spread not only their alphabet but also their knowledge of viticulture and winemaking, including the propagation of several ancestor varieties of the Vitis vinifera family of wine grapes.[2] The Phoenicians either introduced or encouraged the spread of viticulture and winemaking knowledge to several countries that today continue to produce wine fit for the international wine market. These include modern day Lebanon, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal.[1] Though the Phoenicians may have had an indirect effect on the spread of viticulture in France, they are often incorrectly confused with the Greek Phoceans[3] who founded the winemaking colony of Massilia in 600 BC and took winemaking deeper into inland France.[1]
The Phoenicians, and their Punic descendants of Carthage, had direct influence on the growing winemaking cultures of the ancient Greeks and Romans that would later spread viticulture across Europe.[1] The agricultural treatises of the Carthaginian writer Mago was one of the most important early texts in the history of wine to record ancient knowledge of winemaking and viticulture. While no original copies of Mago's or other Phoencian wine writers' works have survived there is evidence from quotations of Greek and Roman writers such as Columella that the Phoenicians were skilled winemakers and viticulturists. The Phoenicians were capable of planning vineyards according to favorable climate and topography, such as which side of a slope was most ideal for grape growing, and producing a wide range of different wine styles ranging from straw wines made from dried grapes to an early example of the modern Greek wine Retsina, made with pine resin as an ingredient. The Phoenicians also spread the use of amphorae (often known as the "Canaanite jar") for the transport and storage of wine.[2][4]
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Historians suspect it was not long after the discovery of wine itself, the alcoholic product of fermented grape juice, that cultures realized its value as a trade commodity. While wild grapes of the Vitis family could be found throughout the known world and all could be fermented, it took some degree of knowledge and skill to know exactly how to turn these grapes into something palatable to drink. This knowledge was passed along the trading routes that emerged from the Caucasus and Zagros Mountains down through Mesopotamia and to the Mediterranean and eventually received by the Phoenicians in Canaan. Specific sub-varieties of grape vines in the Vitis vinifera family were also identified as favorable for wine-making and were propagated via these trade routes.[2]
In addition to being a valuable trade commodity for personal consumption, wine also began to take on religious and cultural significance. Wine, or Cherem as the Phoenicians called it, was associated with various Levantine deities-most notably El. Wine was considered an acceptable offering to both gods and kings which increased its trade value in the ancient world. Around 1000 BC, the Mediterranean wine trade exploded with the Phoenicians and their extensive maritime trade network a prime beneficiary of the increase demand. The Phoenicians not only traded in wine produced in Canaan but also developed markets for wine produced in colonies and port cities along the Mediterranean.[2]
From their principal settlements in Byblos, Tyre and Sidon, the Phoenicians began to expand their trade influence to their neighbors. They were one of the first people to bring wine to Egypt. From there they expanded from beyond mere trading to establishing colonies of trading cities throughout the Mediterranean. They continued along the African coast and eventually founded Carthage in 814 BC. From North Africa they expanded to the Balearic Islands and Iberian peninsula where they founded the city of Cadiz sometime in the 9th century (though a small outpost may have been established even earlier).[1]
On the Iberian peninsula, the Phoenicians travelled further inland establishing trading routes along the Tagus, Douro, Baetis (Guadalquivir) and Iberus (Ebro) rivers. While it is clear that the Phoenician colonies along the coast had planted vineyards, and the Phoenicians likely traded wine with the tribes along the rivers inland, it is not yet certain how far the Phoenicians took winemaking inland on the Iberian peninsula.[1] In Portugal, the Phoenicians were known to trade amphorae of wine for local silver and tin.[5] A recent discovery in the modern day winemaking region of Valdepeñas, in the south central part of what is now Spain, suggest that perhaps the Phoenicians did take viticulture further inland. Excavation in Valdepeñas revealed the remnants of the ancient Iberian town of Cerro de las Cabezas which was founded sometime in the 7th century BC. Among the remnants were several examples of Phoenician ceramics, pottery and artifacts including winemaking equipment.
Beyond the Phoenicians' own expansion and colonization, the civilization did much to influence the Greek and Roman civilization to pursue their own campaigns of expansion. Dealing directly with the Greeks, the Phoenicians taught them not only their knowledge of winemaking and viticulture but also shipbuilding technologies that encouraged the Greeks to expand beyond the Aegean Sea. The wines of Phoencia had such an enduring presence in the Greek and Roman world that the phrase Bybline (relating to the Phoenician town of Byblos) became a byword to denote wine of high quality.[1]
The most lasting legacy of the Phoenicians' era of expansion was the propagation and spread of ancestral grapevines that ampelographers believe eventually gave birth to several modern grape varieties in Europe. One such sub-variety, known to ampelographers and wine historians as Vitis vinifera pontica, was brought to Phoenicia from the Caucasus and Anatolia regions. The Phoenicians would spread this strain of Vitis vinifera pontica across the Mediterranean—most notably in its Iberian colonies. Today ampelographers theorize that this vine is the ancestor of many of today's most widely planted white grape varieties.[1] According to research from the University of California-Davis, the French wine grape Mourvedre may have been first introduced to Barcelona, in the modern day Spanish wine region of Catalonia, by the Phoenicians in 500 BC.[6]
Carthage, in modern day Tunisia, was the Phoenicians' most successful colony and survived in its punic form until its destruction in 146 BC by Roman forces at the end of the Punic Wars. The colony shared an indelible association with wine and was described in the 4th century as having countrysides full of grapevines and olives. Carthaginian wine produced from the Bagradas river valley was particularly popular.[4]
The city of Carthage also served as a center of knowledge, hallmarked by the work of the Punic writer Mago. During his lifetime, Mago consolidated the agricultural and viticultural knowledge of the 3rd and 2nd century Mediterranean world into a 28 volume set. The writings detailed advance knowledge of the influence of topography on vineyard production, with Mago recommending things such as the north slope of a hill being planted in order to shield the vines from receiving too much of the hot North African sun. The work also detailed winemaking practices, including early examples of "raisin wine" being made from dried grapes. The importance of Mago's work was even recognized by the Romans, Carthage's rival. Not only did the Roman senate issue an decree stating that Mago's work should be translated into Latin, his 28 volumes was one of the few works saved from the Carthage library when the Romans destroyed the city in 146 BC.[4]
Today there are no surviving remnants of Mago's work or its Latin translation. What is known comes through quotations of the work by Greek and Roman authors, most notably the Roman writer Columella.[4]