page_title: Provence wine
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Provence wine / History
caption_attribution_description: The old harbour of Marseille, France, viewed from above.
context_page_description: Provence wine comes from the French wine-producing region of Provence in southeast France. The Romans called the area provincia nostra, giving the region its name. Just south of the Alps, it was the first Roman province outside Italy.
  Wine has been made in this region for at least 2,600 years, ever since the ancient Greeks founded the city of Marseille in 600 BC. Throughout the region's history, viticulture and winemaking have been influenced by the cultures that have been present in Provence, which include the Ancient Greeks, Romans, Gauls, Catalans and Savoyards. These diverse groups introduced a large variety of grapes to the region, including grape varieties of Greek and Roman origin as well as Spanish, Italian and traditional French wine grapes.
  Today the region is known predominantly for its rosé wine, though wine critics such as Tom Stevenson believe that region's best wines are the spicy, full-flavoured red wines. Rosé wine currently accounts for more than half of the production of Provençal wine, with red wine accounting for about a third of the region's production.
context_section_description: The exact time when viticulture began in Provence is difficult to calculate. Early inhabitants may have used indigenous vines to produce wine before the Phocaean Greeks settled Massalia in 600 BC. Archaeological evidence, in the form of amphora fragments, indicate that the Greeks were producing wine in the region soon after they settled. By the time the Romans reached the area in 125 BC, the wine produced there had a reputation across the Mediterranean for high quality. Over time, the viticulture and winemaking styles of the Provence have been influenced by a wide range of people, rulers, and cultures, including the Saracens, the Carolingians, the Holy Roman Empire, the Counts of Toulouse, the Catalans, René I of Naples, the House of Savoy, and the Kingdom of Sardinia.
  At the end of the 19th century, the phylloxera epidemic reached Provence and devastated the region's viticulture. Many vineyards were slow to replant and some turned to the high yielding but lower quality Carignan grape. The arrival of the railroad system in the 19th century opened up new markets such as Paris in the north, and in the 20th century, as tourism developed along the French Riviera, production of rosé increased as a complement to the regional cuisine that features dishes such  as bouillabaisse and aioli.
caption: Marseille
exif: {}