¥Wine-growing Phoenicians
arrive in C‡diz around 1100 B.C., and the Carthaginians
and the Romans after them. Many empires and wars follow.
¥Rome pacifies the whole
peninsula under Augustus. Political stability furthers wine
trade. Spanish wine is being sold in Rome and England in the 2nd century.
¥The Roman Empire
disintegrates, the Visigoths have their day.
¥By 711 Iberia is in the
hands of Islamic rulers who tolerate, rather than encourage, wine
production and trade.
¥Christians largely succeed
in the re-conquest of Spain by the 12th century, including
many important wine-growing areas.
¥The wine industry grows
around monasteries in Rioja, and the countryÕs first wine
laws are written.