The next time you settle into a glass of wine, before the floral hints, before the savory aftertaste, perhaps your thoughts might travel to just how wine drinking got started in the first place. As you look for great wine sales online, here’s a brief history of wine. Tale as Old as Time Wine making and drinking and general revelry have been around as early as 6000 BC in Georgia, and the Iranians, Greeks, and Armenians show archaeological evidence of following suit in the next couple thousand years. Wine is perhaps even older still than recordable history, and the exact origins of the first human cultivated wild grapevine remain uncertain. A general theory is that people in ancient days enjoyed the sweet flavor of the berries and would collect them in mugs, bowls, or cups where they would sometimes be resting for a while. The juices would then settle at the bottom of the container, producing a very base form of wine with a low alcohol content. As nomads shifted to more fixed farm living, the idea of cultivating their own berry crop became a possibility. The Oldest Recorded Winery Armenia is host to what archaeologists have discovered so far to be the oldest winery in a cave in Vayots Dzor, Armenia, dated 4100 BC. It had all the basics: a wine press, fermentation vats, jars, and cups. The technology discovered in this cave and its early dating suggest that it’s likely that such technology for making wine had been in place for a long while beforehand, which once again makes the exact origins of wine making relatively obscure. The wine cave in Armenia only emphasizes the fame of Armenian wine during that time over others, even though it’s likely that Georgia actually produced wine first. Wine and Its Legends There are several different wine creation stories and legends from different cultures throughout the world. One of them involves the Persian King Jamshid, who was said to have banned a lady from his harem. This woman was peddling around his storehouses and discovered a bottle that was labeled to be poison, but was actually just a collection of old grapes in a jar. She drank from the concoction, felt her spirits lifted, and brought her discovery to her king. After trying her concoction, he reinstated her to the harem and declared that all grapes in the Persepolis region would be set aside for making wine. The Greeks, of course, had Dionysus to blame. He was their god of wine and merrymaking, but his legend has him begin as a regular human child who discovers the process of winemaking and then teaches it to the people of Anatolia, in Greece. As a reward for this, he was promoted to the status of god of wine. Drinking wine can give a lightness to us all, and merrymaking is sure to abound with a group of friends sipping on cool glasses of a select vintage. As you look for wine sales online, now you have a few golden nuggets for your next wine night conversation.
Related Articles -
wine, sales, online,
|