Wine Making Roman Style, AD10

The area we are in (the département de l'Hérault) is famous for wine making, and the enormous quantities once produced are being replaced by smaller quantities of high quality wine.

However, these remains are of a villa from around 10AD, where pots were made and filled with local wines. This panel explains the site.

This is the way that we fill up with wine these days...

The villa even possessed a swimming pool, unusually for modern times filled with water because of the rains. Beyond the pool, you can see rows of contemporary vines.

The continuing rain is evident in these photographs. We went to look at the River Hérault itself: it has risen far beyond its normal level and is flowing very rapidly.

The trees in this picture and the preceding one are supposed to be well back from the river bank. In fact, it looks as though the water has been even higher, since the vegetation around where I was standing to take the picture is covered in mud, and there is river debris for tens of metres behind me.