Tenute Rubino > Articles > The territory > Visellio, a wine of the Roman Empire

From the Roman Empire to our days.
Already in the first century b.C., between the end of the Roman republic and the rising of the Roman Empire, a great deal of the estates where today the vineyards of Jaddico and Marmorelle are placed, were destined to grape growing.

Lands expressing a great historical value, where the grape growing has always represented not only the chief resource for the local economy, but also a very important development engine. Already in the first century b.C., between the end of the republican age and the rising of the Roman Empire, a great deal of the lands where today two of the estates of Rubino family are located, were destined to  grape growing. These lands belonged to Visellio, a figure of not local origin, maybe a cousin of Cicero, who exerted a certain influence upon the Roman politics of the first half of the century. In this territory, Visellius carried out an intense activity of wine production and trading, as revealed by the excavations that have brought to light an archaeological site of exceptional value in Giancola, in the estate of Jaddico, as well as in the estate of Marmorelle, where a number of implants have been discovered, sharing analogies with that of Giancola.

The findings have revealed an ancient manor villa, a cellar, a marble statue representing Bacchus and kilns for the production of amphorae that were used to store and transport wine in the territories of the Empire, thanks also to the location of the vineyards, which still today are found close to the sea. A considerable amount of production, which is witnessed by the finding of the same amphorae in the farthest regions of the Roman Empire, not only in the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian areas, but also in the Iberian and Gallic West and in the Mediterranean East, to the Black Sea. This high-level production system was abandoned in the second half of the first century B.C. (probably because of civil wars), yet started again during the Age of Augustus, thanks to C. Petronio Sostrato and L. Marcio Saturnino, freedmen who controlled the production on behalf of their ancient masters.