Researchers have discovered traces of wine in Sicily dating back to the fourth century BC - meaning Italians have been making and drinking wine for much longer than previously thought. The finding, published in Microchemical Journal, is "significant as it’s the earliest discovery of wine residue in the entire prehistory of the Italian peninsula", the archaeologists said. The copper container is more than 6,000 years old, making it the oldest known Italian wine and one of the oldest pieces of evidence for winemaking in the world. Nevertheless, the wine traces discovered in Agrigento will help experts reconstruct how wine was produced and traded on the island 6,000 years ago. The previous oldest Italian wine residue was found in a Nuragic winepress near the Sardinian capital Cagliari in the early 1990s, according to Business Insider Italia.

Source: The Local August 28, 2017 09:56 UTC