Provence wine Cassis specializing in white wine production. The Côtes de Provence is the largest AOC followed by the Coteaux d'Aix-en-Provence. The Bandol region near Toulon is one of the more internationally recognized Provençal wine regions. The exact time when viticulture began in Provence is difficult to calculate. Early inhabitants may have used indigenous vines to produce wine before the Phocaean Greeks settled Massalia in 600 BC. Archaeological evidence, in the form of amphora fragments, indicate that the Greeks were producing wine in the region soon after they settled. By the time the Romans reached the area in 125 BC, the wine
Names of the Greeks used by the Romans. Some toponyms, especially an ancient city "Hellas" in southern Thessaly, and the Greek tradition seem to indicate that the name "Hellenes" was Pre-Dorian itself and that the homeland of the "Graikoi", who were later called "Hellenes", was in central Greece. The Greek tradition mentions an earlier deluge of Ogyges in the region of Boeotia which was occupied by the Minyans a group of autochthonous or Proto-Greek speaking people. The region was called Graïke in ancient times probably after the old city of Graea (Γραῖα "Graîa", from Proto-Greek "grau-j-", "old lady") on the coast. Homer refers to