When you are interested in the world of wine and its history, a question hits you quite quickly : since when does man produce wine ? Regularly, paleontologists make discoveries about viticulture and the production of - intentional - fermented grape juice.
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| Harvests in Egypt (detail of a fresco, Thebes, tomb of Nakht) |
Vine : a plant as old as the world
It is difficult to precisely date the origins of the vine. It seems, however, that the vine preceded the appearance of man on earth and was already growing in our lands 130 million years ago. However, the first trace of wild grapes was found in fossils dating back to 60 million years ago, at the beginning of the tertiary era.
At that time, the primitive vine was limited to the northern hemisphere. In Champagne, a fossilized vine leaf dating from the Paleocene. It was found in the Sézanne region and dates back to 60 million years ago. But, at that time there was no question of growing vines to produce a fermented drink today called wine.
The cradle of vines and wine : Armenia
As Alexandre Dumas explained in Le Caucase : "It was in Armenia that Noah, the patron saint of drinkers from all countries planted the vine and tried the power of wine". The Bible relates in Genesis that "Noah, farmer, began to cultivate the land and planted a vine.". This is how the Bible recalls the ancestral origin of vine cultivation in Armenia.
Viticulture spread to neighbouring Georgia, who is, with Armenia, one of the main centers of viticulture in the Caucasus. This region, that we call today Armenia, was the place represented by the Bible as Eden, or Earthly Paradise.
Archaeological evidence in the Areni region shows the presence of voluntary wine production. According to Gregory Areshian, head of excavations and deputy director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles, "For the first time, we have a complete archaeological picture of a wine production over 6000 years ".
Archaeologists have found, in Armenia, traces of winemaking made during Prehistory, in the Copper Age : a complete wine production unit dating back more than 6000 years was discovered on a site of some 700 square meters among dozens of graves, suggesting that wine may have played a ceremonial role.
Among the items found, archaeologists have discovered grape seeds, leftover pressed grapes, atrophied vine branches, a clay tank, apparently used for fermentation, deep of 60 centimeters, that may contain 52 to 54 liters. The researchers also found a rudimentary press in the form of a clay basin, nearly one meter by one meter and 15 cm deep, surrounded by a kind of duct to contain the grape juice which could thus flow into the vat.
"Clearly,, the grapes were crushed with the feet as has been done for a very long time in all wine producing regions", explains Gregory Areshian, excavation manager. Researchers also discovered pieces of pottery impregnated with wine, a cylindrical cup made of an indeterminate animal horn as well as a clay bowl for drinking and multiple fragments of other similar containers. This discovery therefore makes Armenia the official cradle of viticulture.
A new discovery of viticulture in Greece changes the game
I'm not talking to you here about aliens or illuminati, but from another country.
Indeed, archaeologists have found ancient Greek jugs that can be used for wine conservation. After a chemical examination of these objects, researchers have found traces of a wine more than six millennia old.
Traces of a prehistoric wine have been found by a team of scientists from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Higher Normal School.
A team of scientists from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Higher Normal School examined the jugs discovered in 2010 in Dikili Tash, in northern Greece. This earthy crockery was found in the ruins of a fire-ravaged building more than six centuries ago. It should be noted that previous excavations in this area had uncovered Neolithic objects. Found not far from the jugs, petrified leftover crushed grapes indicate that local farmers knew how to make wine and grape juice.
There is one element that differentiates this study from previous. Indeed, previous studies were all based on the presence of chemical traces of grapes in the jugs, whereas this study in question sought to reveal markers of fermentation, namely pyruvic and succinic acids. Thanks to the results of this research, researchers will be able to try to better understand the history of viticulture and the geography of wine consumption in ancient civilizations.
But who is the first ?
The interest of the discovery of winemaking in Greece lies in the questioning of what was previously imagined. It is unclear who from Armenia or Greece was the first to produce fermented grape juice. If these two countries produced wine during the same period, it may mean that wine production could go back to an older period.
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