While a family in Carmona, Spain was renovating their home in 2019, they stumbled upon a remarkably preserved ancient tomb beneath their property. Inside the tomb, researchers unearthed what is now recognized as the world’s oldest preserved wine in liquid form. The wine, originally white but transformed to a reddish-brown hue over centuries, was found in a glass urn alongside cremated human remains. Scientists at the University of Córdoba determined that the liquid was a local sherry-like variety.
According to a study published in the journal ‘PLOS One’, the tomb dates back to the first half of the first century C.E. and features eight burial niches carved into its walls. Six of these niches contained urns made of glass, lead, limestone, or sandstone, each holding human remains. Two urns were inscribed with names: Senicio and Hispanae.
The wine was discovered in another glass urn, submerged in nearly five litres of the reddish liquid. The remains of a man, along with a gold ring, were also found in the urn. Experts confirmed the liquid was indeed wine after analyzing its chemical composition. The absence of syringic acid, a decomposition byproduct of red wine, led them to conclude that the wine was made from white grapes.
Prior to 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. Dated between AD 325 and 350, the bottle is the oldest unopened wine bottle known to exist. Since its discovery, it has been exhibited at the Wine Museum section of the Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer.
