The empire of the vine tells how cultivation of the vine brought civilisation to the Mediterranean, through the Greeks and Romans who spread its cultivation from the area around Pompeii, to Tuscany and into France via the Rhone valley. “Northern limits” looks at the history of German vineyards along the Moselle and Rhine rivers. Initiated by the Romans at Trier, continued by Charlemagne and the Cistercian monks in the middle ages, experiments with new wines continue to this day in this apparently inhospitable climate.