History Of Wine

Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest production of wine, made by fermenting grapes, took place in sites in Georgia and Iran, from as early as 6000 BC. These locations are all within the natural area of the European grapevine Vitis vinifera.

A 2003 report by archaeologists indicates a possibility that grapes were used together with rice to produce mixed fermented beverages in China as early as 7000 BC. Pottery jars from the Neolithic site of Jiahu, Henan were found to contain traces of tartaric acid and other organic compounds commonly found in wine. However, other fruits indigenous to the region, such as hawthorn, could not be ruled out. If these beverages, which seem to be the precursors of rice wine, included grapes rather than other fruits, these grapes were of any of the several dozen indigenous wild species of grape in China, rather than from Vitis vinifera, which were introduced into China some 6000 years later.

The oldest known evidence of wine production in Europe is dated to 4500 BC and comes from archaeological sites in Greece. The same sites also contain the world’s earliest evidence of crushed grapes. In Ancient Egypt, six of 36 wine amphoras were found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun bearing the name "Kha'y", a royal chief vintner. Five of these amphoras were designated as from the King's personal estate with the sixth listed as from the estate of the royal house of Aten. Traces of wine have also been found in central Asian Xinjiang, dating from the second and first millennia BC.

In medieval Europe, the Roman Catholic Church was a staunch supporter of wine since it was necessary for the celebration of Mass. In places such as Germany, beer was banned and considered pagan and barbaric, while wine consumption was viewed as civilised and a sign of conversion to Christianity. Monks in France made wine for years, storing it underground in caves to age. There is an old English recipe which survived in various forms (allowed by the King) until the nineteenth century for refining white wine using Bastard—bad or tainted bastardo wine. Wine was forbidden during the Islamic Golden Age, until Geber and other Muslim chemists pioneered its distillation for cosmetic and medical uses.