PREVIEW

Scientists have discovered the oldest wine still in existence - dating back almost 2,000 years to the First Century AD.
In 2019, the discovery of a Roman tomb in Carmona set them on course to identify the ancient tipple. The tomb, which belonged to Hispana, Senicio, and four other individuals (two men and two women whose names remain unknown), contained a glass funerary urn with the skeletal remains of a man immersed in a reddish liquid.
This liquid has now been confirmed by a team led by Professor José Rafael Ruiz Arrebola from the University of Cordoba's Department of Organic Chemistry to be wine, making it the oldest known wine, surpassing the 4th-century Speyer wine bottle, discovered in 1867.
Despite the passage of 2,000 years, the tomb's exceptional conservation conditions kept the wine intact, ruling out damage from floods, leaks, or condensation. No word as yet on its taste, however!
Juan Manuel Román, the municipal archaeologist of Carmona, expressed astonishment at the discovery, saying: "At first we were very surprised that liquid was preserved in one of the funerary urns."
To confirm the nature of the liquid, the research team conducted extensive chemical analyses at the UCO's Central Research Support Service. They examined its pH, the absence of organic matter, mineral salts, and the presence of certain chemical compounds, comparing these to modern Montilla-Moriles, Jerez, and Sanlúcar wines. The critical identification was made through polyphenols, biomarkers found in all wines. The team detected seven specific polyphenols in the ancient liquid, matching those in contemporary wines from the region.
Mineral salts present in the tomb's liquid are consistent with the white wines currently produced in the territory, which belonged to the former province of Betis, especially Montilla-Moriles wines. The absence of a specific polyphenol, syringic acid, served to identify the wine as white, despite it taking on a browny-reddish colour over the years.
The presence of wine in the man's urn, but not in the woman's, highlights ancient Roman gender divisions. Women were prohibited from drinking wine in Roman society, which was considered a man's drink. The man’s urn included a gold ring and bone remains from his cremation, which were immersed in the wine, while the woman's urn contained three amber jewels, a bottle of perfume with a patchouli scent, and fabric remains, possibly silk.
These items were part of a funerary trousseau, intended to accompany the deceased into the afterlife. The tomb, a circular mausoleum likely belonging to a wealthy family, was located along a significant road connecting Carmo with Hispalis (Seville). Marked by a now-vanished tower, it served as a memorial to its inhabitants.