wine history
Old studies attribute the emergence and spreading of viticulture in Sardinia to Phoenicians, however in the last few years there had been many archeo-botanical discoveries suggesting that vines where already present before the Phoenicians landed in Sardinia.
Wine amphorae from 10th century bC. were discovered recently, that was two centuries before Phoenicians landing, in addition to that, some grape seeds, charred grapes and vitis vinifera pollinst dated 14th century bC. have been found in some "Nuraghes" in the "thousand tower island" as Aristotle called Sardinia.
As evidence of the long history of Sardinian wine, we can recall some findings dated pre-roman and roman time of wine laboratories, but also the "Carta Delogu" enacted by Eleonora d'Arborea at the end of 14th century, regulated and protected vine growing and wine producing activities.
In Oliena there was a great activity in wine making in the 16th century, by Franciscan friars who, after building a church and convent, implanted a 10000 vines vineyard, building a winery near by. Today we can still watch the ruins of that building. After that wine making continued thanks to Jesuit fathers, and since then Oliena's people kept growing vines and making good wines, many government funtionaries, writers and poets wrote about Oliena's wine in several occasions, describing it as "A wine to be counted as a luxury, must drink it with little sips to please your mouth, and every sip, will accomodate all matters of soul and body" (De Villa)
