800 Av J-C: Traces of cultivated vines

Grapes have been cultivated and wine drunk in Valais since the Iron Age, well before the Roman period. Viticulture was likely introduced around 500 BC by our neighbours from northern Italy or Ticino, at that time under Celtic and Greek-Etruscan influence. The analysis of remains of vegetation in Lake Montorge in Sion shows evidence of grape-growing activity between 800 and 600 BC. Grape seeds with their pedicels from this period have also been found at the archeological site in Gamsen. Archeologists have not, on the other hand, found any traces of vinification. While wine was a beverage that had become very much a part of the consumption habits of the local elite, it appears that it was imported. Amphore fragments show a definite taste among Valais people for Mediterranean wines.

Celtic wine jar in the form of a top – trottola vase