Wines
Between the agricultural and food products of this area, wine has stood out in the last years. The most important wine is “Matera DOC Moro”, with a ruby-red color, intense, persistent,and herbaceous perfume, and with a dry, full, harmonic and almost smooth taste.
Although the designation Doc has been obtained only in the recent years, wine production is a vry ancient tradition in this region. It is handed down from generation to generation. In a first time, this region was called “Oenotria”, i.e. “The Wine land”, by Greeks arrived here at the middle of the 7th century b.C. from Greece. Here they founded their first colonies which subsequently begun Magna Graecia. For this reason Oenotria then indicated that larga territory among Greek colonies of Metaponto, Siris, Sibari and the city of Poseidonia.
PWine production techniques used by the Greeks were particular. The must obtained from the winepressing was put in jars internally covered with pitch. Within them, the mosto boiled until it was reduced of about the half. At this point the jrs were closed with the pitch or with oil. Many other substances were added to the mosto (which were unnecessary) by the Greeks in order to give wine more fullness and to reinforce its taste or to facilitate its ageing. They added, for example, resin or infusions produced with branches of pine and cypress, or bitter almonds, saffron, clover, and blueberry juice. In order to make clearer the colour of the wine, Greeks pulverized shells of slug, salt crystals, acorns, olive stones, pitch and clay.
