Discovering ancient wine presses

Not surprisingly named Enotria, "land of wine", Calabria has always had a strong connection with viticulture, practised throughout the region and linked, until recently, to Mediterranean winemaking practices: among these, the use of stone wine presses.

The ancient wine presses (later reused for oil) still represent one of the most important and monumental testimonies to Calabrian agricultural life until the advent of industrialisation.

Preserved almost everywhere, Calabrian wine presses are particularly concentrated in the countryside of the Ionian coast, between the provinces of Catanzaro and Reggio Calabria. Let's discover them all on a "slow tour" dedicated to wine, among wine presses and "catòja" (traditional domestic cellars).

Have you ever seen a wine press? If you ask any Calabrian farmer, they will tell you that is nothing more than a shallow basin, formerly carved out of solid rock (almost always granite) and later also made of brick or concrete, in which the grapes are pressed and the must fermented. The origins of wine presses are ancient and they are found throughout the Mediterranean basin: from North Africa to Corsica, passing of course through Calabria, which has always been devoted to the cultivation of wine grapes. There are archaeological depictions of ancient Calabrian wine presses and evidence of their use until the early 20th century, when wine was still made domestically and communally, without industrial means.

A growing awareness of the cultural and anthropological value of wine presses, true "rural masterpieces", has made it possible to preserve them and, where possible, enhance them, transforming them into attractions for lovers of "slow tourism" or even putting them back into operation in educational farms and farmhouses establishments, where visitors can admire how they work and try their hand at the fun practice of pressing grapes barefoot, directly in the stone vat.

Just follow the so-called "Wine Routes" to find traces of wine presses throughout the region. However, beyond individual artefacts, there are areas where the concentration of wine presses has aroused the interest of scholars and enthusiasts, allowing them to identify actual large-scale wine-making areas, dedicated since ancient times to production intended not only for family needs but for the entire community, if not for export.

The Ionian coast between the provinces of Catanzaro and Reggio Calabria is one such example: here, wine production in wine presses dates back approximately to the Late Antiquity period, linked to the spread of Greek-Byzantine and Basilian monasticism (as evidenced by the engraving of crosses and oriental symbols on the vats) and, subsequently, to the figure of Cassiodorus Senator (in the so-called "Cassiodorean places"), with numerous documentary evidence and artefacts along the entire Costa degli Aranci and the Gulf of Squillace.

The wine presses found in dozens in the countryside of Santa Caterina dello Ionio (and, in smaller quantities, in the neighbouring villages of Guardavalle and Badolato) may also be linked to this production, which was destined for the markets of Rome and Emperor Theodoric. These municipalities, upon request and in different ways, offer the opportunity to visit the wine presses and, during particular festivals and periods of the year, to take part in the grape harvest, the pressing and the tasting of wine in the typical "catòja", the domestic cellars in the villages.

Another area with a high concentration of wine presses, many of which are monumental in size, is the hill overlooking the Costa dei Gelsomini Regional Marine Park in the province of Reggio Calabria. Here, between the so-called "Valley of the Armenians" and the Greek communities of Bovesìa (an ethnolinguistic minority of Greek of Calabria), pressing and fermentation in wine presses have been practised until recently and on a large scale, as evidenced by the large number of wine presses found in Ferruzzano, Bruzzano Zeffirio and Palizzi. The last one, not surprisingly, is one of Calabria's "Wine Cities" due to its prized production of Palizzi IGT wine.