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Wines: History

Wine production has a long history dating back to 7000 BC. Since then wine has been spread all over the world and consumed during different historical times. Wine survived the Indus valley civilization in India, Ancient Egypt and Medieval Europe just to name a few. The fact that it’s something that has been around for centuries and it has a connection with religion adds to the fascination with wine

According to a fable, it all started with a Persian Princess who lost favour with the King. In her despair she tries to poison herself by eating spoiled grapes. But much to her surprise all of her troubles went away and she felt very happy and giddy. Yes, this is the first documentation of drunkenness. But because of her, let’s call it “attitude change”, she regained favour with the King, who on his part started with the production of spoiled grapes. This was his way of changing everybody’s attitude.

Wine was one of the first things that Man created. So it has a huge impact on cultural history. Though it started as a natural process, it was human applied intelligence that increased the quality of the wine.

The earliest documentation of viniculture is in the Old Testament of the Bible which tells us that Noah planted a vineyard and made wine. However, the civilizations of Greece and Rome traced it back to their own prehistory and built legends around its discovery. Ancient Egypt left behind lists and wall paintings. Actually it was the Egyptians that recorded the vintage, vineyard and winemaker on individual jars of wine: the first wine labels.

We can conclude that the actual discovery of wine will probably never be known. But what we do know is that the Romans first took some vine clippings from Greece to Italy. Viniculture spread from Italy to France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and the rest of Europe. It was the Spaniards who were responsible for bringing grapes and wheat to what is now Latin America. Trade routes and early travellers carried vines and grape growing articles to Mexico, Argentina, and North Africa. Today the culture of wine continues to spread around the globe, with vines growing on every continent except Antarctica.