Do you have any old wines kicking around?
If you do, it’s probably not as old as this one, though!
The oldest unopened bottle of wine that has been discovered (at least so far) is the Römerwein aus Speyer (Speyer Bottle), which was found in a Roman tomb near the city of Speyer in Germany in 1867.
The bottle has been dated to around 325 AD and was one of ten bottles found in the tomb, along with the remains of a man and a woman. The other bottles were broken, although one was found to contain a small quantity of liquid wine.
The bottle is on display at the Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer and it remains unopened to this day.
While the Römerwein aus Speyer is the oldest known unopened wine bottle, another wine container was found in 2019 by, that is even older.
This is a funeral urn, containing wine that was discovered in another Roman tomb (this one in Spain) that was uncovered when the tomb was found under a house that was being renovated. The tomb and the wine are believed to be about 2,000 years old.
Interestingly, the urn also contained the cremated remains of one of the tomb’s occupants, so I don’t think we should drink it 😀.
Analysis of the wine has suggested that it is a form of sherry, so producing that type of fortified wine certainly goes back a while.
For more information on these remarkable examples of early beverage packaging, see this Wikipedia article on the Römerwein aus Speyer and a Guardian report on the early Spanish sherry.
