Many experts claim that the vine already existed in Tuscany long before man made
      his appearance. The Etruscans, who colonized the Tuscan hinterland, are said to
      have found it and "tamed" it. In this case, it wouldn't have been the Phoenician
      navigators who brought and cultivated this plant in Tuscany, but the Etruscans
    themselves.
Wine was sipped from the "patera" (oval-shaped cups with handles, already in use
as long ago as seven centuries before Christ), and it was preferred drunk "pretto",
that is, straight, while the Greeks and Romans used to mix it with water, herb infusions
or honey ("mulsum").
The Etruscans were the first great wine producers and exporters;
shipments of wine jars would cross the Tyrrhenian, headed towards
Sicily and southern Gaul.

At Cap d'Antibes, a shipwreck was found containing about 170 jars
from Vulci. Virgil lists several wines and grapes in use in the Etruscan world.