The Origins and History of Wine Making

The Origins and History of Wine Making Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from grapes, and depending on your definition of made from grapes there are at least two independent inventions of the lovely stuff. The oldest known possible evidence for the use of grapes as part of a wine recipe with fermented rice and honey was in China, about 9,000 years ago. Two thousand years later, the seeds of what became the European wine-making tradition began in western Asia. Archaeological Evidence Archaeological evidence of wine-making is a little difficult to come by, of course; the presence of grape seeds, fruit skins, stems and/or stalks in an archaeological site does not necessarily imply the production of wine. Two main methods of identifying winemaking that are accepted by scholars are identifying domesticated stocks and discovering grape processing evidence. The main change incurred during the domestication process of grapes is that the domesticated forms have hermaphrodite flowers. What that means is that the domesticated forms of the grape are able to self-pollinate. Thus, the vintner can pick traits she likes and, as long as she keeps them all on the same hillside, she need not worry about cross-pollination changing next years grapes. The discovery of parts of the plant outside its native territory is also accepted evidence of domestication. The wild ancestor of the European wild grape (Vitis vinifera sylvestris) is native to western Eurasia between the Mediterranean and Caspian seas; thus, the presence of V. vinifera outside of its normal range is also considered evidence of domestication. Chinese Wines But the story really must start in China. Residues on pottery sherds from the Chinese early Neolithic site of Jiahu have been recognized as coming from a fermented beverage made of a mixture of rice, honey, and fruit, radiocarbon dated to ~7000–6600 BCE. The presence of fruit was identified by the tartaric acid/tartrate remnants in the bottom of a jar, familiar to anyone who drinks wine from corked bottles today. Researchers could not narrow the species of the tartrate down between grape, hawthorn, or longyan or cornelian cherry, or a combination of two or more of those. Grape seeds and hawthorn seeds have both been found at Jiahu. Textual evidence for the use of grapes (but not grape wine) date to the Zhou Dynasty (ca 1046–221 BCE). If grapes were used in wine recipes, they were from a wild grape species native to China- there are between 40 and 50 different wild grape species in China- not imported from western Asia. The European grape was introduced into China in the second century BCE, with other imports resulting from the Silk Road. Western Asia Wines The earliest firm evidence for wine-making to date in western Asia is from the Neolithic period site called Hajji Firuz, Iran, where a deposit of sediment preserved in the bottom of an amphora proved to be a mix of tannin and tartrate crystals. The site deposits included five more jars like the one with the tannin/tartrate sediment, each with a capacity of about 9 liters of liquid. Hajji Firuz has been dated to 5400–5000 BCE. Sites outside of the normal range for grapes with early evidence for grapes and grape processing in western Asia include Lake Zeriber, Iran, where grape pollen was found in a soil core just before ~4300 cal BCE. Charred fruit skin fragments were found at Kurban Hà ¶yà ¼k in southeastern Turkey by the late 6th–early 5th millennia BCE. Wine importation from western Asia has been identified in the earliest days of dynastic Egypt. A tomb belonging to the Scorpion King (dated about 3150 BCE) contained 700 jars believed to have been made and filled with wine in the Levant and shipped to Egypt. European Wine Making In Europe, wild grape (Vitis vinifera) pips have been found in fairly ancient contexts, such as Franchthi Cave, Greece (12,000 years ago), and Balma de lAbeurador, France (about 10,000 years ago). But evidence for domesticated grapes is later than that of the East Asia, but similar to that of the western Asia grapes. Excavations at a site in Greece called Dikili Tash have revealed grape pips and empty skins, direct-dated to between 4400–4000 BCE, the earliest example to date in the Aegean. A clay cup containing both grape juice and grape pressings is thought to represent evidence for fermentation at Dikili Tash, and grape vines and wood have also been found there. A wine production installation dated to ca. 4000 cal BCE has been identified at the site of Areni 1 in Armenia, consisting of a platform for crushing grapes, a method of moving the crushed liquid into storage jars and (potentially) evidence for the fermentation of red wine. By the Roman period, and likely spread by Roman expansion, viticulture reached must of the Mediterranean area and western Europe, and wine became a highly valued economic and cultural commodity. By the end of the first century BCE, it had become a major speculative and commercial product. Wine Yeasts Wines are fermented with yeast, and until the mid-20th century, the process relied on naturally-occurring yeasts. Those fermentations often had inconsistent results and, because they took a long time to work, were vulnerable to spoilage. One of the most significant advances in winemaking was the introduction of pure starter strains of Mediterranean Saccharomyces cerevisiae (commonly called brewers yeast) in the 1950s and 1960s. Since that time, commercial wine fermentations have included these S. cerevisiae strains, and there are now hundreds of reliable commercial wine yeast starter cultures around the world, enabling consistent wine production quality. DNA sequencing has enabled researchers to trace the spread of S. cerevisiae in commercial wines for the past fifty years, comparing and contrasting different geographical regions, and, say researchers, providing the possibility of improved wines. Sources: The Origins and Ancient History of Wine is a highly recommended website at the University of Pennsylvania, maintained by archaeologist Patrick McGovern. Antoninetti, Maurizio. The Long Journey of Italian Grappa: From Quintessential Element to Local Moonshine to National Sunshine. Journal of Cultural Geography 28.3 (2011): 375–97. Print.Bacilieri, Roberto, et al. Potential of Combining Morphometry and Ancient DNA Information to Investigate Grapevine Domestication. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 26.3 (2017): 345–56. Print.Barnard, Hans, et al. Chemical Evidence for Wine Production around 4000 Bce in the Late Chalcolithic near Eastern Highlands. Journal of Archaeological Science 38.5 (2011): 977-84. Print.Borneman, Anthony, et al. Wine Yeast: Where Are They from and Where Are We Taking Them? Wine Viticulture Journal 31.3 (2016): 47–49. Print.Campbell-Sills, H., et al. Advances in Wine Analysis by Ptr-Tof-Ms: Optimization of the Method and Discrimination of Wines from Different Geographical Origins and Fermented with Different Malolactic Starters. International Journal of Mass Spectrometry 397–398 (2016 ): 42-51. Print.Goldberg, Kevin D. Acidity and Power: The Politics of Natural Wine in Nineteenth-Century Germany. Food and Foodways 19.4 (2011): 294–313. Print. Guasch Janà ©, Maria Rosa. The Meaning of Wine in Egyptian Tombs: The Three Amphorae from Tutankhamuns Burial Chamber. Antiquity 85.329 (2011): 851–58. Print.McGovern, Patrick E., et al. Beginnings of Viniculture in France. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 110.25 (2013): 10147–52. Print.Morrison–Whittle, Peter, and Matthew R. Goddard. From Vineyard to Winery: A Source Map of Microbial Diversity Driving Wine Fermentation. Environmental Microbiology 20.1 (2018): 75–84. Print.Orrà ¹, Martino, et al. Morphological Characterisation of Vitis Vinifera L. Seeds by Image Analysis and Comparison with Archaeological Remains. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 22.3 (2013): 231–42. Print.Valamoti, SoultanaMaria. Harvesting the ‘Wild’? Exploring the Context of Fruit and Nut Exploitation at Neolithic Dikili Tash, with Special Reference to Wine. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 24.1 (2015): 35†“46. Print. European Wine Making In Europe, wild grape (Vitis vinifera) pips have been found in fairly ancient contexts, such as  Franchthi Cave, Greece (12,000 years ago), and  Balma de lAbeurador, France (about 10,000 years ago). But evidence for domesticated grapes is later than that of the East Asia, but similar to that of the western Asia grapes.   Excavations at a site in Greece called  Dikili Tash  have revealed grape pips and empty skins, direct-dated to between 4400-4000 BC, the earliest example to date in the Aegean. A wine production installation dated to ca. 4000 cal BC has been identified at the site of  Areni 1  in Armenia, consisting of a platform for crushing grapes, a method of moving the crushed liquid into storage jars and (potentially) evidence for the fermentation of red wine. Read more about the  wine production site at Areni-1 Sources This article is a part of the About.com guide to the History of Alcohol, and the Dictionary of   Archaeology.The  Origins and Ancient History of Wine  is a  highly recommended website at the University of Pennsylvania, maintained by archaeologist Patrick McGovern.   Antoninetti M. 2011. The long journey of Italian grappa: from quintessential element to local moonshine to national sunshine. Journal of Cultural Geography 28(3):375-397. Barnard H, Dooley AN, Areshian G, Gasparyan B, and Faull KF. 2011. Chemical evidence for wine production around 4000 BCE in the Late Chalcolithic Near Eastern highlands. Journal of Archaeological Science 38(5):977-984. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2010.11.012 Broshi M. 2007. Date Beer and Date Wine in Antiquity. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 139(1):55-59. doi: 10.1179/003103207x163013 Brown AG, Meadows I, Turner SD, and Mattingly DJ. 2001. 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