ROME, ITALY—The Guardian reports that evidence of an extravagant courtyard winery has been uncovered at the Villa of the Quintilii, a second-century A.D. complex on the Appian Way that includes a theater, a bathing facility lined in marble, and a chariot-racing track installed by the emperor Commodus during his reign from A.D. 177 to 192. The winery was constructed by a later emperor over one of its starting gates. Archaeologist Emlyn Dodd of the British School at Rome said that fountains of wine would have been visible from covered dining rooms arranged around three sides of the courtyard. Diners would have also been able to see enslaved workers stamping grapes on marble-covered treading areas. “Usually these treading areas would be covered in a waterproof concrete,” he said. “But these were covered in red marble. Which isn’t ideal, as marble gets incredibly slippery when wet." The crushed grapes were processed in two large mechanical presses nearby, and then sent to three fountains set in niches in a courtyard wall. Finally, the grape must have traveled from the fountains along channels to storage jars set into the ground for fermentation. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Antiquity. For more on ancient winemaking, go to "Alcohol Through the Ages."
