Albania is one of the oldest wine producers in Europe. Viticulture had developed as early as the 8th century B.C. on the basis of indigenous varieties that had endured presumably since the Ice Age. Between the eighth and sixth centuries B.C., the Greeks founded a series of colonies on the present Albanian coast. They became among the most important ports in the eastern Adriatic; by Roman times, Albania's coastal regions were renowned for wine and oil production. With the conquest of the Ottomans in the 17th century, a serious crisis began in wine viticulture, which managed to survive only in the Christian territories. In predominantly Muslim areas, however, a type of viticulture for family production of grapes often used for the production of spirits took hold. Beginning in 1912, following Albanian independence, we could see a resurgence of viticulture that had to contend with the spread of diseases caused by powdery mildew and downy mildew and finally phylloxera.