A 1,700-year-old Roman bottle in a German museum has never been opened — and for over a century it was called the oldest wine on earth. A 2024 discovery in Spain just rewrote that claim.
Researched and drafted with AI, then verified three ways for accuracy — cross-checked against independent sources, audited by a separate AI accuracy pass, and reviewed by editor Ken Wytsma.
The Speyer wine bottle — also called the Römerwein — is the oldest known unopened bottle of wine in the world, dated to roughly 325–350 AD.[1] Unearthed in 1867 near the German city of Speyer, it has sat sealed for nearly seventeen centuries, its cloudy contents still inside.
A Bottle From a Roman Tomb
The bottle was discovered in 1867 during the excavation of a Roman tomb near Speyer, in the Rhineland-Palatinate.[1] Made of yellow-green glass with handles shaped like dolphins, it holds about 1.5 litres. What preserved it was a thick layer of olive oil floating on top of the wine, which sealed out air, topped by a wax stopper. Today it is displayed in the Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer, and curators have largely chosen not to open it, uncertain the liquid would survive contact with air.[1]
A layer of olive oil and a wax seal kept the air out for nearly 1,700 years.
In 2024, researchers identified liquid wine inside a 1st-century Roman funerary urn from Carmona, Spain — roughly 300 years older than the Speyer bottle. So Speyer holds the record for the oldest sealed bottle, while Carmona now holds the oldest wine preserved in liquid form.[2]
Wine in the Ancient World
Wine sat at the center of Greek and Roman life — religious, social, and medicinal. The Greeks worshipped Dionysus as the god of wine (the Romans knew his counterpart as Bacchus).[3] Roman soldiers, contrary to a popular claim, were not required to drink a fixed daily ration of wine; their everyday drink was usually posca, a watered-down sour wine or vinegar.[4]
Ancient writers also left us colorful, and sometimes exaggerated, customs. The biographer Plutarch, writing centuries later, recorded that Spartan mothers bathed their newborns in wine as a test of constitution — a separate practice from the city’s well-known inspection of infants by its elders.[5] Such accounts come from a single late source and are best read as tradition rather than documented fact.
From a sealed Roman bottle to the glass in front of you, wine carries thousands of years of history — the throughline behind every one of our Willamette Valley wine tours.
Frequently asked questions
What is the oldest bottle of wine in the world?
The Speyer wine bottle, also called the Romerwein, is the oldest known unopened bottle of wine in the world. Dated to roughly 325-350 AD, it was unearthed in 1867 near Speyer, Germany, and has remained sealed for nearly 1,700 years.
Is the wine in the world’s oldest bottle still drinkable?
No. Although the Speyer bottle is still sealed and holds a cloudy liquid, its contents are not considered drinkable after some 1,700 years. It survives as an archaeological artifact rather than a wine to taste.
Related reading: Wine cultures of ancient Greece · The history and evolution of winemaking
- c. 325–350 AD
- The wine inside the Speyer bottle is produced.
- 1867
- The bottle is unearthed from a Roman tomb near Speyer, Germany.
- 2024
- Liquid wine from a 1st-century urn in Carmona, Spain, is confirmed as the oldest in liquid form.
See also: The Monk in the Vineyard — our flagship on how a medieval idea called terroir ended up in a glass of Willamette Pinot.
Sources
- “Speyer wine bottle,” overview; Historical Museum of the Palatinate. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speyer_wine_bottle; Atlas Obscura
- “Carmona wine urn” / “World’s oldest wine discovered in southern Spain,” 2024. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmona_wine_urn; Scientific American
- “Dionysus,” Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com/topic/Dionysus
- “Posca,” Roman military drink. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posca
- Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus, 16. classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/lycurgus.html
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