The History of Wine

People have different ideas about the origin of wine. It should be correct to say that more than 10 thousand years ago, our common ancestors began to make wine and the wine culture was heritaged till now.

Evidence show that there are two ways to spread the grape planting and winemaking skills from east to west. One is by water which started from Asia Minor and Egypt, and then passed to Crete island, Sicily island, Libya, Italy, Provence in France and coastal Spain. The other one is by land which passed through Donau Valley to central Europe.

Archaeological study shows that wine has a history of? 6000? years .reports says that a 3500-year-old wine pot with narrow neck and two ears was found in Iran 20 years ago. Component analysis of the wine pot found Tannin and malec acid which are natural chemicals contained in wine. This means people begun to drink wine 5500 years ago.

Ancient Persia (Iran today) is one of the civilization origins. Most historians hold that Persia was the first country to make wine. It is said that a Persian king liked to eat grapes and he used to press grapes in a big pot. He gave it a label of POISONOUS in case people stole the grapes. One day, an imperial concubine was tired of her life and drank the juice in the pot. She found out that the taste was very good. Instead of committing suicide, she became very excited and felt confidence about life. She also gave the king a glass of the juice and the king was very happy. From then on, the king gave order to collect ripen grapes and closely store them in containers for fermentation so as to make wine.

An archaeological excavation in Greece found a curvette in an ancient tomb which dated back to 2 hundred B.C. The curvette described how Apollo and Victorio paid contribution of wine to the God.

Later, winemaking methods spread from Persia, and Egypt to Greece, Rome and France. And then, the winemaking skills and wine drinking habits continued on to the rest of Europe. Europeans believe in Christianity and Christians regard bread and wine as the flesh and blood of Christ which made this the catalyst of wine culture throughout Europe. Today, Europe has the highest wine consumption per capita and the wine production in Europe makes up 80% of the total in the world.