Ancient Rome and wine Gaul. The Romans established lucrative trading relations with local tribes of Gaul, despite their potential to produce wine of their own. The Gallic tribes paid high prices for Roman wine, with a single amphora worth the value of a slave. From the Mediterranean coast, the Romans pushed further up the Rhone Valley, to areas where olives and figs were unable to grow but where oak trees were still found. As a result of their experience in what is now northeastern Italy, the Romans knew that regions where "Quercus ilex" were found had climates sufficiently warm enough to allow the full
Pressing (wine) container where the contents would ferment. The pressure applied by these manual means was limited and these early wines were likely pale in color and body. Eventually humans discovered that more juice could be extracted and potentially a better wine could be produced if they developed ways of pressing. It begin with the ancient Egyptians who developed a "sack press" made of cloth that was squeezed with the aid of a giant tourniquet. The ancient Greeks and Romans developed large wooden wine presses that utilized large beams, capstans and windlasses to exert pressure on the pomace. That style of wine