The technique dates back to pre-Classical times with wines becoming fashionable in
Roman times and in late
Medieval/
Renaissance Europe when wines such as
Malmsey ('Malvasia' originally from
Greece) and Candia (from
Crete) were highly sought after. Traditionally, most production of these wines has been in Greece, the islands of
Sicily,
Cyprus,
Northern Italy and the
French Alps. However, producers in other areas now use the method as well. Excavations in
Cyprus on the
Neolithic site at Erimi have revealed that sweet wine was made there some 6000 years ago. This is the earliest appearance of sweet wine in the
Mediterranean region. A wine grape wine known as the Cypriot Manna (or Nama). Similar principles were used to make the medieval Cypriot wine
Commandaria, which is still produced today. References to raisin-wine production in ancient
Israel appear both on jar fragments from
Tel Lachish and in
talmudic literature from the early centuries AD. The process of making raisin wines was described by the Greek poet
Hesiod in
mainland Greece around 800 BC. Various Mediterranean raisin wines were described in the first century AD by
Columella and
Pliny the Elder. Pliny uses the Greek term for honey wine for the following raisin wine: Columella discusses the
Passum wine made in ancient Carthage. The modern Italian name for this wine, passito, echoes this ancient word, as does the French word used to describe the process of producing straw wines,
passerillage. Perhaps the closest thing to passum is Moscato Passito di
Pantelleria from
Zibibbo, a variety of the ancient
muscat grape, produced on Pantelleria, an island in the
Strait of Sicily from Tunisia) opposite to where
Carthage used to be. ==Australia==