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ORIGINS OF WINE

While grape juice can ferment naturally, without human intervention, the Neolithic period (8500-4000 B.C.) is possibly the first time wine was deliberately made by humans. A wine jar (amphora) dated to roughly 5000 BC has been found in the Zagros mountains of Iran, and stains found in the jar are of tannins and tartaric acid, both components of wine. Hence it seems winemaking originated somewhere between the Black sea and the Caspian sea, in the area corresponding to present day Iran, Georgia, and Armenia. In ancient Egypt, there is evidence that wine was made by at least 2700 BC, and wine jars found in the tomb of King Tutankhamen (roughly 1300 BC) are inscribed with details such as the year of vintage, the names of the vineyard and winemaker responsible for the wine, and the type of wine (whether sweet, dry, blended, etc). The web site of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology provides a good introduction to the origins of wine.

Sun, 09 Jul 2000 11:09:04 -0700