La Saveur de la Terre: Le Vin Dans l'Antiquite en Languedoc et en Roussillon

The wines of Languedoc-Roussillon circulated across the Roman world, reaching North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean long before the region acquired its modern reputation. Archaeologist Stéphane Mauné has spent decades excavating that ancient trade, and this focused study draws on his fieldwork to trace viticulture in the region from its introduction by the Greeks through the end of the Roman period.

The argument is built on physical evidence: amphorae, production sites, trade networks. Working from these, Mauné reconstructs how wine production took hold in the region during the early Iron Age and developed through the Roman period into something of genuine Mediterranean scale. The book situates local practice within that broader world, showing not just that these wines traveled but tracing the routes and networks through which they did.

Amply illustrated with maps, floorplans of wineries, illustrations of pruning techniques, and photographs of archaeologically significant sites,  La Saveur de la Terre offers serious grounding in a history that turns out to be far older and more far-reaching than the region's modern reputation suggests. For readers with a particular interest in ancient agriculture and the archaeology of wine.

Paperback. Color illustrations throughout. In French.