Raise your amphorae to 1st-2nd-c. plonk

Archaeologists are giddy. Off the coast of Sicily, a Roman shipwreck has yielded 500 amphorae - ancient storage jars, for those who still haven't gone all Nolan-Homeric - stacked like a warehouse delivery gone wrong on the seafloor. Historians are already sharpening their quills to reconstruct 1st-2nd-c. Mediterranean trade networks, supply chains and the economic sinews of the Early Roman Empire.

But let's be honest: what we really want to know is the nature of the good stuff sloshing inside those jars. Connoisseurs swoon over 1945 Chateau Mouton Rothschild and Bowmore 1964 Black. But these vintages are mere toddlers compared with the 2,100-yr-old plonk now going to be lifted out of Sicilian waters.

Could we expect the tasting notes: 'Hints of brine, undertones of amphora clay, with a finish redolent of empire'? The sommelier's challenge will be less about pairing with lamb shanks than surviving the first sip. If Dionysus himself were resurrected, he would surely bypass the spreadsheets and head straight for the corkscrew.


The discovery is extraordinary, yes. But it also raises a delicious prospect: that the world's most exclusive wine list may soon include 'Sicilian Amphora 26 A.D.' Forget terroir; this is terrific archaeology you can drink. And if the taste proves catastrophic, well, at least historians will have their trade networks.