The growing of grapes and production of wine goes back millennia. Wine was an integral part of Egyptian, Phoenician, Greek and Roman culture, used for feasts and religious ceremonies and everyday drinking too. But the origins of wine are much older.
The earliest evidence of wine production is in the South Caucasus. From here, viticulture and wine-making spread westward to countries around the Mediterranean, spurred on by the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans. The Romans in particular planted vineyards everywhere they went including most of the vineyards we know today and as far north as Britain.
For a long time, it was believed that the first wines were made in Iran as evidence of wine-making had been discovered dating back to the 5,000 BCE.
However, now two neighbouring countries, Georgia and Armenia, are vying with each other to be the cradle of wine. At times, it seems as though they indulge in competitive archaeology; as soon as one country unearths evidence of the earliest wine-making the other follows shortly with a discovery that is a little older.
In 2011, a wine press and fermentation jars from about 6,000 years ago were found in a cave in Armenia. Then in 2017, researchers in Georgia uncovered some 8,000-year-old pottery in two villages south of Tbilisi. Both were decorated with paintings of grape clusters and had residue of wine. So far, this is the oldest evidence of wine-making.
Wine is still made in a very similar traditional way in Georgia and Armenia, using qvevri or large clay amphorae to ferment and age wine. The grapes, including stalks and pips, are placed in amphorae buried in the ground and sealed, often for months. This style of wine-making has become very fashionable, and you will find amphorae in a surprising number of wineries around the world.
