History
The exact time when viticulture began in Provence is difficult to calculate. Early inhabitants may have used indigenous vines to produce wine before the Phocaean Greeks settled Massalia in 600 BC. Archaeological evidence, in the form of amphora fragments, indicate that the Greeks were producing wine in the region soon after they settled. By the time the Romans reached the area in 125 BC, the wine produced there had a reputation across the Mediterranean for high quality. Over time, the viticulture and winemaking styles of the Provence have been influenced by a wide range of people, rulers, and cultures, including the Saracens, the Carolingians, the Holy Roman Empire, the Counts of Toulouse, the Catalans, René I of Naples, the House of Savoy, and the Kingdom of Sardinia.
At the end of the 19th century, the phylloxera epidemic reached Provence and devastated the region's viticulture. Many vineyards were slow to replant and some turned to the high yielding but lower quality Carignan grape. The arrival of the railroad system in the 19th century opened up new markets such as Paris in the north, and in the 20th century, as tourism developed along the French Riviera, production of rosé increased as a compliment to the regional cuisine that features dishes such as bouillabaisse and aioli.
Read more about this topic: Provence Wine
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“We know only a single science, the science of history. One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature and the history of men. However, the two sides are not to be divided off; as long as men exist the history of nature and the history of men are mutually conditioned.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“In history an additional result is commonly produced by human actions beyond that which they aim at and obtain—that which they immediately recognize and desire. They gratify their own interest; but something further is thereby accomplished, latent in the actions in question, though not present to their consciousness, and not included in their design.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
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