The profound bond linking Orvieto with its wine goes far back in time. Wine in Orvieto has always been an intimate part of daily life in the town, as well as playing an important role in the official history and social life of the Municipality, a tradition that can be traced back in an unbroken line to the Etruscans.

Above, below, and all around the tufa cliff everything speaks of wine: the bas-reliefs of the Cathedral, the inscriptions of the medieval corporations, the frescoes in the oldest palaces, the subsoil with its wine cellars connected to each other by a network of underground galleries dug who knows when. Scattered on the hills around this bluff of tufa, the vineyards bear witness to this indissoluble link, making Orvieto the epicenter of one of the most important historical and economic wine-producing areas in Umbria.

The vineyards are located on the hilly ranges on the right and on the left sides of the River Paglia, as far as its confluence with the Tiber. Recent underwater exploration of the ninthcentury BC pile dwellings on the eastern shores of Lake Bolsena have revealed the presence of seeds of the “vitis vinifera” in the territory as far back as Villanovan times. When they came to Central Italy in the eighth century BC, the Etruscans immediately noticed the isolated bluff rising up over the plain of the River Paglia, an ideal place for a settlement, while at the base they erected a sacred complex and marketplace. The name they gave their town was Velzna, close to "vina" (vineyard in Etruscan) which, as recent studies confirm, corresponds to Oina and therefore Oinarea, “ where wine flows”, mentioned in a text which testifies to the fact that the reputation of Orvieto wine had reached the Greek coasts. T

he Etruscans dug caves in the tufa bluff and elaborated a system of vinification which produced an alcoholic beverage with unique organoleptic features. There was a rationale to the making of wine in these cool cellars located “on three levels”. The grapes were trodden on the ground floor and the juice trickled down into the lower caves through terra cotta pipes. Here it fermented until it was drawn off from the vats and transferred to the deepest level, suited to aging and long conservation. This system of cellars one above the other ensured the quality of a wine that was slightly sweet, sparkling and quite enjoyable.

An extraordinary document of the Etruscan age that bears witness to the all important role of wine in everyday life, religion and the rites of this people is the scene with the funeral banquet painted on the walls of the Golini 1 tomb, otherwise called tomb of the Velii. On one wall, servants are shown preparing food and drink and bunches of grapes are clearly visible.

In the picture of the banquet with meats hung in the larder and amphorae containing wine in the background, a young man can be seen carefully crushing a few bunches of grapes with his hands to produce wine, renewing the myth of wine and blood and therefore of life. Aside from conjectures, the prosperity of Etruscan Orvieto was unquestionably connected to the production of wine and the great number of wine cups and containers found in its necropoli – stamnoi, krateres, skyphoi, kantharoi, kilikes, oinokoai, etc. - clearly indicate how important it was.

The Etruscans sent trading expeditions to northern Europe where they sold their wine, and the Romans did the same. When the town was under Roman control, wine was shipped to Rome via the river port of Palianum, where a great number of wine amphorae have recently been found. The large number of pottery bowls, cups and pitchers recovered in the nineteenth century and later from medieval “ butti” (refuse pits) also testify directly to the importance of Orvieto wine in the Middle Ages.

Documents and provisions favoring both the creation of new vineyards and the safeguarding of consumer interests bear witness to the importance attributed to this prestigious wine by the Municipality of Orvieto of that period. Vineyards were areas protected by “state” laws and in 1295, in order to make sure that these laws were respected, the Consuls named vineyard guardians whose task was to control the vineyards, the production and the proceedings of work on the farm throughout the year. The oldest document which minutely describes both the territory around Orvieto and the town itself appears in the land register of the year 1292. It testifies to the presence of vineyards everywhere (castles, country houses, the cliff itself and its slopes, etc.) since grapes were the principal crop. The town itself was a sort a “long enclosed field” and vineyards covered about half the available space.
The demand for wine in Orvieto seems to have taken a decisive turn in the first thirty years of the fourteenth century, as the political-economic vicissitudes of the town engendered a wave of optimism connected to the rise of the new social classes between the mid-thirteenth century and 1313. The excessive growth in size of lands devoted to the cultivation of grapes (until 1347) is documented by the petition of the “pastinarii” (sharecroppers) unable to farm vineyards that had become too extensive.

The Collettta Statutes of 1334 bear witness to the consideration with which the Municipality regarded the wine of its own countryside, for harsh punishment was meted out to those who passed off one wine for another or who used short measures not marked with the municipal seal.

The late fourteenth and early fifteenth century was perhaps the most critical period in the economy and demography of Orvieto with periodically recurring plagues and the persistence of internecine wars. Simone Prudenzani, a medieval poet from Orvieto, was aware of this situation. In “ Rime varie” and in particular in “ Sonetti alle vigne” he foregoes the delights of hunting and banquets to describe the current economic slump, with vineyards abandoned or sold.. The reduction in terre vineate, the wine lands, between 1363 and 1447 echoes Prudenzani’s verse.

he Municipality continued protecting and sustaining wine production by the laws that it passed, even in the periods of greatest decline and the never-ending struggles among opposing factions. The City set the date when grape harvesting was to be begun, and an error could compromise the whole vintage, whereas how long the harvesting period lasted depended on the weather trends. Usually the vintage was delayed as much as possible in order to let grapes fully mature. The grapes harvested daily were brought to the town where they were processed.