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Tracing The Ancient History Of Wine

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Tracing The Ancient History Of Wine

“Good wine”, said Shakespeare “is a good familiar creature if it be well used”.

Wine is one of the most favoured and widely consumed drinks in the world, especially in Europe, America, and Australia. Interestingly, the history of wine has several meeting points with the history of the Western world. The origins of wine can be traced back to the Fertile Crescent area (Nile Delta) – a region that lay between the Nile and Persian Gulf. Historians are generally of the opinion that this drink was discovered accidentally during 4000 and 3000 B.C. As human settlements began to grow into larger formats (city/state) people started trading goods and products. The trading practice began to flourish throughout the Mediterranean region. Grapes, fruits, were particularly favoured by dynasties such as Romans, Greeks, and Phoenicians and pretty soon, the knowledge of how to make a heady alcoholic drink from this fruit spread fast through the region and finally pervaded Europe too.

The Father Grape

Wine, has now been used for more than 4,500 years. Many believe that Middle East region was where wines were made for the very first time. Of course, throughout the course of history, there are several references to wine including in the Old Testament. The drink was also known to have been enjoyed by early Minoans, Greeks, and Etruscans. Now after hundreds of centuries, wine is still being used for sacramental purposes in Christian churches, celebrations, regular day to day use, and even for medicinal purposes.

Wine takes years to mature after being made from fermenting juice of grapes. There is only on species of grape, ‘Vitis vinifera’, which is used in all wines manufactured across the world. This particular species of grape can be referred to as the father of all grape varieties, because as many as 4,000 varieties have been developed from it so far! Though different from each other, these grapes are also similar in size, colour, shape, composition of the juice, time taken for ripening, among other things. But out of these 4,000 varieties, only close to a dozen are used for making wine and the prime among them are: Riesling, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Gewurztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc, and Muscat.

Birth of the Spirit

Many facts in the Western world history indicate that our ancestors were definitely familiar with the qualities of different types of grapes. Archaeologists have discovered drawings of grape seeds on the walls of ancient caves! According to historians, who have been tracing the history of wine, it is a possibility that grapes may have been fermented with the help of wild yeasts, accidentally leading to the birth of wine.

The birth place of this fermented spirit in all probability is Egypt and Persia. And surprisingly by 3000 B.C. both these regions had developed simple and effective ways to make wine! White wine was perhaps the first one to be prepared by the Egyptians from a grape variety we now know as the “Muscat” grape of Alexandria. The drink was attributed to Orisis (God of death and fertility in Egyptian mythology) and was served during funerary rituals.

Early Years – Egypt & Persia
Since Egypt and Persia are attributed at the birthplaces of the wine, it is not surprising that the Persians also considered wine as a divine gift. Many wine experts believe that some of the finest grape varieties are a direct product of precursor grapes varieties grown by the Persians in ancient days. Furthermore, the Phoenicians are considered the people responsible for spreading the early techniques of winemaking to regions such as Greece, Italy – more specifically Tuscany region.

The Italian Connection

At this time, wine had already become a favoured drink in Rome; in fact, wine cultivation became so popular that there was a large surplus of this spirit. So much so that in AD 92 a Roman emperor had to issue a decree that all vineyards outside of Italy be destroyed and uprooted. Though this lead to much loss, but when replanting was allowed again, European countries such as France, Germany, and England benefited from it the most. Since Islam forbade wine drinking, areas under the Muslim empire – from Southern Spain to North India to North Africa – remained unaffected by the winemaking phenomenon. However, Catholic Church has definitely been responsible for the prosperity of winemaking and England also succumbed to the winemaking temptation and now produces new wine varieties such as Sherry, Port, and Madeira.

The French Kiss

The Christian monks in France and Northern Italy maintained record of the winemaking techniques, rituals, practices, and method of grapes cultivation. The records played an instrumental role and more and more regions began to work hard to produce the best type of grape and best tasting wine in their areas. Therefore, by 1800, France and Northern Italy came to be recognized as the most well developed regions for producing wine worldwide.

And now…

Today, regions such as Australia, Eastern Europe, South Africa, and Napa Valley in America are providing tough competition to the reputed wine producing regions such as France, Italy, and England – not just in quality, taste, richness and variety but also technique and price.

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Bill & Sheila’s Wine

The History Of Wine Is The History Of Man’s Thirst

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For all the talk what “wine snobbery” does wine expertise come do to? In the end wine is nothing more than simply fermented fruit juice. And “rotten” or “fermented “fruit juice at that. The earliest evidence suggesting wine production comes from archaeological sites in Iran and Russian Georgia, dating from 6000 to 5000 B.C. (Before Christ). Wine has long been used as a safe storage form of precious water for human consumption, and for its use in religious and important cultural mores. Almost every culture and societal group on earth each somehow learnt to make simple alcoholic beverages.

This is no mere accident. Humans early on learnt the psychological effects that alcohol provides. Along the way they learnt to like affect and desired and even craved these effects of alcohol. Wine is even generally considered as a sexual aphrodisiac among many cultures.

Today many important wine regions in Europe are proud of their wine histories which they date back all way to the early Roman era.

Wine itself in the end can be sourced from any fruit juice – although most commonly known as the fermented liquid of crushed grapes. Wine of course can be derived from grapes, plums, peaches, pears and in the end most fruit juices.

What about the different colours found in different varieties of wines. The colour of the wine is the result of the length of time the skins remain with the juice doing the fermentation process. Basically wine comes in three colours- red (reddish purple to light brown), whites ( whitish pale yellow to amber) and the mid-range blush: which is of peach to light pink coloration.

Should wine be sweet or not sweet that is “dry”? Most wines are naturally dry. “Sweetness occurs when the fermentation is interrupted before all of the sugar can be converted to alcohol during the fermentation process. The producer of the wine can also add unfermented grape juice or a sweetener such as liquid sugar to the wine during its manufacturing process.

Most wines do not have extra alcohol added to them. That is they are in their “natural “or “virgin state”. These wines are referred to as not being fortified. That is they contain only the alcohol that was provided for in the fermentation process itself. However there are some wines – for example “Sherry” and “Port” are two wine family products that have their alcohol content enhanced and increased. This can be done in effect artificially and not by the normal standard fermentation process through the addition of straight alcohol to the wine. A kinder gentler means to adding alcohol to wine is to add distilled wine that is brandy to the wine.

Lastly wines can be bubbly themselves or have no effervescence. In the first category are “Sparkling” which have effervescence .These wines are bottled in thick heavy –set bottles with wire bound corks to keep the pressure in , whereas “Still” wines are wines bottled without Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and therefore have no bubbliness or effervesce. Still wines can be found bottled in ordinary bottles with ordinary corks.

In the end though it is safe to remember that wine is nothing more several different types of fruit juices , of different colours that is presented to you in different types of glasses , from different types of storage and transport containers which is presented to you to quench your thirst.

Bill & Sheila’s Wine