Below, you will find information, as well as some curiosities hidden behind glass in display cases that you can discover by clicking the buttons, about the world history of wine. We distinguish three periods: Ancient History; the Middle Ages; and the Modern and Contemporary Ages.
It is estimated that the first place where grapevines were cultivated was in Ancient Mesopotamia. However, the country where viticulture is first recorded is Egypt, through hieroglyphic writing, more than 3,500 years ago. Nevertheless, it was the Greek civilization, and later the Roman civilization, that spread the cultivation and their knowledge to other regions of the world. In the first display case, you can see two Greek amphorae: a wine amphora (on the right) and an oil amphora (on the left), which were the first containers used for the transport and storage of wine and oil, respectively.
From the Middle Ages onward, amphorae were replaced by wineskins, which were simply containers sewn from animal hides. Furthermore, we know that even then, the trellised vineyard system used for grape cultivation in our region was already in place, as shown in the image we will discover by clicking the light-up button.
At the end of the 17th century, wineskins were replaced by glass, a material for transporting and storing wine that began to gain popularity at the beginning of the 18th century and continues to be used today.
Please note the collection of jugs and cups made for the Condado do Tea Wine Festival in the next display case. The earliest dates from 1975.
