THE ORIGINS – PART 1: PREHISTORY

We have to go a long way back to trace the origins of wine!

As a matter of fact, it seems that "vitis vinifera", the original plant from which all modern varieties descend, was already on our planet since prehistoric times and maybe was one of the first plants to grow spontaneously over 50 million years ago.

It was common knowledge that the first reference to wine was in the Genesis, where in Chapter 9 you can read:

"And Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard; And then he drank of the wine, and was drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent..."

While according to a traditional Jewish legend, after the Deluge Satan appears in front of Noah and offers him his help to plant and grow a vineyard. The patriarch accepts, so Satan takes a lamb, a lion, a pig and a monkey, and with their blood soaks the soil. Then he says: "Before a man drinks wine, he is innocent as a lamb; if he drinks of it moderately, he feels as strong as a lion; if he drinks more of it than he can bear, he resembles a pig; and if he drinks to the point of intoxication, then he behaves like a monkey..."

Yet recently, in the region of ancient Mesopotania, archaeologists found a hymn dating back to 4000 BC (prebiblical epoch). It was composed on the occasion of the inauguration of Enki temple, god of wisdom and patron of the city of Eridu. A passage of the hymn narrates the celebrations at the royal palace, attended by Enki and his family, and for the first time serving and drinking wine is mentioned.

But at that time mankind had already been produciong wine for thousands of years, of course using wild grapes and following techniques very different from modern ones. Besides, ancient populations had an unlike concept of wine, since for them it was not a product characterized according to grape varieties, but the basis for many other drinks. That's why they could add to it water, honey, pitch, resins and any other kind of flavours.

Very likely, "vitis vinifera" arrived from India and spreaded over the rest of Asia, stopping first at the "fertile half-moon" between Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and then reaching the Mediterranean shores.

Some scholars even say that the noun "wine" derives from the Sanskrit word "vena", meaning "love" (from which also the name Venus comes).

Anyway, the first area of interest related to the practice of fermenting must is very probably the Trans-Caucasian region (today Armenia and Georgia), where people already used to squeeze grapes.

(To be continued)

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