Malta is getting a reputation for good wine – but this is hardly a recent phenomenon. There is mounting evidence that it was already competing with other ancient Mediterranean producers as far back as the 3th-4th century BC.
The Superintendence of Cultural Heritage is mapping archaeological sites in Malta which could shed important light on the history of alcohol production and consumption in the Mediterranean.

“It has always been assumed that there was alcohol in the Bronze Age (2,500-700 BC) but we are now documenting wine-presses in Mgarr ix-Xini which would confirm that there was a flourishing trade in the 3rd-4th century BC,” Superintendent Tony Pace said.

“There is evidence that wine was used in cultures as far apart geographically as Afghanistan and Portugal. There are wine presses similar to those in Malta and Gozo all over the classical world but we have a real concentration of them in small areas, which would indicate that the volume of wine production at these sites was very significant.”

The presses are located near a valley with access to the sea, where mooring holes in the cliff sides could have been used to tie up the small, agile Roman vessels, the sunken remains of one lies on the seabed outside the bay. This lends support to the theory that the wine was produced in large enough quantities to export.

“We can estimate the amount produced from the size of the basin,” Mr Pace said.

“Some of them were enlarged, which shows that demand must have grown.”

The Superintendence has spent the past three years combing the valley at Mgarr ix-Xini, where 15 wine-presses have been found. Mr Pace and George Azzopardi, who is currently reading for a PhD in archaeology from the University of Durham, have mapped the area, cataloguing the different presses. The project has throughout benefited from the constant assistance and support of the Sannat and Xewkija local councils.

The team of archaeologists have scoured the valley on foot, also finding pottery from Pantelleria dating to Late Antiquity, which they describe with enthusiasm as archeological fingerprints, providing important clues.

They are now ready to present their first findings to an international conference being held in Rome in autumn.

The basins are made up of a square indentation into which the grapes would be put for crushing, either with a cantilevered wooden or stone press or in the old-fashioned one: treading them with one’s feet. The first step in the process was however to soak the stone basins for a few days to saturate the rock. Next the grapes would be pressed and the must (or grape juice) would run through a small channel into a deeper basin, were it would be collected in leather skins and removed for transformation into wine.

“We found shells in one which suggests that the wine used to be diluted with seawater, as classical texts say,” Mr Azzopardi said.

The only mystery is what type of grape was used.

“We could find out. All we need is some money for more research,” Mr Pace said