The Early Origins of Wine

Wine has been around for a very long time and so has the effort of making wine.

Wine, as a natural phase of grape spoilage, was “discovered” by accident, unlike beer and bread, which are human inventions. It is established that grape cultivation and wine drinking had started by about 4000 BC and possibly as early as 6000 BC.

The first developments were around the Caspian Sea and in Mesopotamia, near present-day Iran. Texts from tombs in ancient Egypt prove that wine was in use there around 2700 to 2500 BC. Priests and royalty were using wine, while beer was drunk by the workers. The Egyptians recognized differences in wine quality and developed the first arbors and pruning methods. Archeological excavations have uncovered many sites with sunken jars, so the effects of temperature on stored wine were probably known.