Sacrifice a lamb then pick the grapes was the order of things in a first century Roman winery like the one at Quinilli. As a young man, emperor-to-be Marcus Aurelius, described the proceedings. “I set out for my father and stood by him at the sacrifice. Then I went to lunch. Then we set ourselves to the task of picking the grapes; we sweated, and rejoiced.”
A report in the journal Antiquity tells of an ancient facility just outside Rome that was probably specially built for such an occasion. The authors present the architectural and decorative form of the winery and illustrate how the annual vintage was reimagined as ‘theatrical’ performance.
Excavations uncovered the unique and well-preserved Roman winery at the Villa of the Quintilii, on the fifth mile of the Via Appia Antica, south of Rome. The Villa deploys three rectangular dining rooms to frame the production areas. That to the north had the most privileged view of the production process. Installations (e.g. presses, vats, cella) were placed along key visual axes and, in this way, functional elements also served as décor.
The Villa of Quintilli
The facility’s decorative ensemble, highlighted through the use of luxurious materials, was accentuated further when in use—brightly coloured grape must ran through the thin, white marble channels, drawing the observer’s eye up to the façade with its fountains and the treading area above. With the addition of various sounds—workmen joking, laughing or grunting, and the music that accompanied treading —a truly theatrical impression would have been realised.
See also Born Too Late! in The Glug Wine Diary
