In 2019, a family in the Andalusian city of Carmona stumbled upon an extraordinary piece of history while renovating their home. Beneath their property lay a remarkably well-preserved Roman necropolis, untouched by time. Among the treasures inside was a glass urn holding what is now recognised as the world’s oldest preserved wine, still in liquid form.
The wine, originally white but now a reddish-brown hue, was found alongside cremated human remains in the ancient tomb. Scientists from the University of Córdoba conducted tests and confirmed that the liquid was a local sherry-like variety. This fascinating discovery was recently detailed in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
The tomb, dating back to the first half of the first century C.E., features eight burial alcoves carved into its walls. Six of these contained urns made of glass, lead, limestone, or sandstone, each holding human remains. Two urns bore the names Senicio and Hispanae. The wine was discovered in another glass urn, submerged in nearly five litres of the reddish liquid, along with the cremated bones of a man and a gold ring.
Experts identified the liquid as wine by analysing its chemical composition. The absence of syringic acid, a decomposition byproduct of red wine, indicated that it was made from white grapes specifically.
Before this discovery, the oldest known wine preserved in a liquid state was the Speyer wine bottle, unearthed from a Roman tomb near the German city of Speyer in 1867. The bottle, dated between AD 325 and 350, is the oldest unopened wine bottle known to exist and is exhibited at the Wine Museum section of the Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer.