The Irish believe that fairies are extremely fond of good wine. The proof of the assertion is that in the olden days royalty would leave a keg of wine out for them at night. Sure enough, it was always gone in the morning.
- Irish Folklore
The jars from Jiahu village contained a mixed fermented beverage
The University of Pennsylvania has found that the Chinese may have been fermenting alcoholic beverages and wine as early as 6000 B.C. Chemical tests have revealed a fermented beverage of hawthorn fruit and/or wild grape, beeswax associated with honey, and rice.
3000 year old wine found in sealed bronze containers was made from rice or millet and was flavored with herbs, flowers, and possibly tree resins. The jars had been sealed shut, trapping the beverage inside. When the jars were opened, the scientists found a drink that one described as having a "delicious aroma and light flavor."
A 3,000-year-old Chinese bronze jar still contained a rice or millet wine.
In Ancient Egypt the rich drank wine. Sweet or dry white and red wines were produced. First pressing was by workers stomping on them with their feet. Second pressings of lower quality juice was from putting grapes, pips and stems in cloth and twisting to extract the juice. Juices were put into jars and allowed to ferment. Before the use of corks, jars were closed with a wad of leaves and mud. A small hole was left until secondary fermentation took place, and then that hole was plugged. Jars were labelled with the quality, year and vineyard and allowed to age. Egyptians also made wine from dates, pomegranates and palm sap.
The Egyptians developed the first arbors and pruning methods.
This Egyptian papyrus reproduces ancient Egyptian winemaking techniques
In ancient Babylon, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead (fermented honey beverage) he could drink for a month after the wedding. Because their calendar was lunar or moon-based, this period of free mead was called the "honey month," or what we now call the "honeymoon."
The Ancient Greeks grew grapes and olives as their main source of wealth. Vines were grown on terraces cut into the hillside to get the maximum sunlight. Ripe grapes were harvested in September and taken to a treading floor made of wood or mortar which sloped down to an outlet. As workers trod the grapes, juice ran into a vat sunk into the ground. It was left to ferment in clay vats lined with pitch or resin. The vats were stored in cool cellars for six months, and then the wine was poured into large amphorae for ease of transport. Proof of large scale export of wine was found in sunken wrecks of merchant ships laden with amphorae for Greek colonies in southern Italy or off the Black Sea.
Foot treading of grapes is still used in producing a small quantity of the best port wines.
Barges were used to transport wine in barrels from vineyards in France and Germany to ships carrying the wine to all regions of the vast Ancient Roman Empire. Italian wine was also enjoyed throughout the Roman Empire.
During Roman times it was not uncommon to dissolve pearls in wine for better health. Cleopatra created her own legend by promising Marc Antony she would "drink the value of a province" in one cup of wine, after which she drank an expensive pearl with a cup of wine.
The Romans believed that wine had both healing and destructive powers. It could heal the mind from depression, memory loss and grief as well as the body from various ailments-including bloating, constipation, diarrhea, gout, halitosis, snakebites, tapeworms, urinary problems and vertigo. The use of wine by women was frowned upon and even prohibited. Husbands were legally allowed to kill or divorce their wives if they caught them participating in the cult of Bacchus.
For many centuries, women in the Roman empire were not permitted to drink wine.
When Rome fell the use of the amphora as a storage vessel was lost. Wine was stored in wooden casks which allowed for evaporation of wine and the admittance of air and bacteria. The keeping of mature wines would not return until glass bottles and corks came into use early in the 17th century.
The Dark Ages was a period of invasions and social turmoil, with the Roman Catholic Church as the only stable social structure. Through the Church, grape growing and wine making technology was preserved. The Benedictine monks became one of the largest producers of wine in France and Germany,
In the Christian religion God is sometimes represented as the keeper of a vineyard and the church as his vine. In the rite of the Holy Communion the faithful drink wine in representation of the blood of the Lord.
St. Tryfon, the guardian saint of
vineyard workers and vines
In the Middle Ages, wine was the common drink of all social classes in the south, where grapes were cultivated. In the north and east, where little or no grapes were grown, beer and ale were the common drink of both commoners and nobility. Wine was imported to the northern regions, but was expensive, and thus seldom consumed by the lower classes.
In medieval times much of the wine was too unstable to age well, and was inclined to turn to vinegar. One way to combat this problem was to use a thin film covering of olive oil. Other methods included adding burnt salt, mixing in cloves, or plunging lighted torches dipped in pitch into the wine. Vintners and wine sellers often just mixed good wine in with bad, at least until the practice was later forbidden. Others put cloves in wine to keep it from spoiling. A major advance of medieval wine making was the discovery of sulphur by the alchemists.
Wine was a universal medicinal drink in the Middle Ages and at the time the world's only known antiseptic.
One medieval application of wine was the use of banded Agates, called snake-stones, dissolved in wine against snake bites.
In 1166, the vintages were so plentiful and there was such an over production of wine, that in Franconia (a part of what is now Germany), they mixed wine with lime for use in building construction.
Before thermometers were invented, brewers would dip a thumb or finger into the liquid to determine the ideal temperature, neither too hot nor too cold, for adding yeast. From this we get the phrase "rule of thumb.
Grapes are not grown from seeds because they start out as blossoms that are fertilized from the pollen of another vine. If the vine is a different grape type, then the seed will be the “offspring” of both vines. Cuttings are more predictable when you are trying to get the same type of grape each time you harvest.The seeds and skin of the grape contain tannins.
Tannin is a bitter tasting substance that causes the “dry mouth” feeling associated with some red wines.
There are about 400 species of oak, though only about 20 are used in making oak barrels. Of the trees that are used, only 5% is suitable for making high grade wine barrels. The average age of a French oak tree harvested for use in wine barrels is 170 years!
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There are about 400 species of oak, though only about 20 are used in making oak barrels. Of the trees that are used, only 5% is suitable for making high grade wine barrels. The average age of a French oak tree harvested for use in wine barrels is 170 years!