There are different records in ancient books about the origin of wine. It was born about 10,000 years ago, so far away that history cannot record it. Wine is the product of natural fermentation. The earliest wine was produced shortly after the ripe grape berries fell to the ground, the peels cracked, and the exuded juice came into contact with yeast in the air. Our distant ancestors tasted this natural product and thus imitated the natural biological instinct of the brewing process. Therefore, from a modern scientific point of view, the origin of wine went through a process of transition from natural wine to artificial wine.
The eighth and ninth chapters of Genesis in the Bible tell the story of Noah being drunk: Noah was a man among the countless descendants of Adam and Eve. He believed in God very devoutly, and he became the ancestor of subsequent humans. . When God discovered that evil and greed had appeared in the world, he decided to send a great flood on the earth to cleanse all evil creatures. Noah followed the Lord's will and selected a male and female pair of all plants and animals on the earth (the plant he selected was grapes), and took his three sons (Sem, Coham and Japhet) with him. , boarded a homemade wooden boat, the famous Noah's Ark. After 150 days of flooding, on the seventh month and 17 days, the Ark was resting on Mount Ararat (eastern Turkey, the border area between Armenia and Iran). After this, Noah began to cultivate the land, planted the first grape plants, and later began to make wine. One day, he was drinking heavily alone in the tent and became extremely drunk. After his son Khan found Noah lying naked and drunk on the ground, he called Sim and Garfet. The latter two took their robes and walked backwards into the tent to cover their father with their backs facing each other without looking at his father's nakedness. body. After Noah sobered up, he cursed the Khan and asked God to make the Khan's sons, the Canaanites, slaves of the Garfet family. He was discourteous after drinking, but he took out his anger on his son. What's more, he even punished his grandson as a slave. "Drinking without virtue" seems to be the same at all times and in all countries.
Although the Bible does not mention whether Noah brought wine on board the ship, from the fact that he first cultivated grapes to make wine as soon as he got off the ship, it seems that it can be inferred that besides thanking God, the first thing in his mind was The most important thing is to grow grapes and make wine. Of course, Noah's brewing is a Hebrew myth, not a fact.
According to historical records, during the Neolithic Age 10,000 years ago, artifacts were discovered in the Transcaucasus region on the edge of the Black Sea, which is now Anatolia (ancient name Asia Minor), Georgia and Armenia. The large amount of grape seeds accumulated indicates that grapes were not only used for eating, but also mainly for pressing juice and making wine. Most historians believe that wine making originated in ancient Persia in 6000 BC, which is now Iran. The earliest cultivation of grapes began about 7,000 years ago in the South Caucasus, Central Asia, Syria, Iraq and other regions of the former Soviet Union. Later, it spread to other areas with ancient wars and immigrants. First he arrived in Egypt, then in Greece. However, the real information to be found is the large number of remains and relics discovered in ancient Egyptian tombs. In the Nile River Valley, from the excavated tombs, archaeologists discovered an earthen jar containing liquid with a small round bottom, a thick round belly, and a large neck at the top (Figure 1). According to research, it was an ancient Egyptian burial object. Earthen clay pots used by people to hold wine or oil; especially the reliefs (Figure 2) clearly depict the cultivation, harvesting of grapes, brewing steps and drinking of wine by the ancient Egyptians, which has been going on for more than 5,000 years. history. In addition, the word Yirp (Egyptian, meaning wine) is also engraved on the wine bottles produced in the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Western scholars believe that this is the beginning of the human grape and wine industry. Hugh Johnson, a famous writer on the subject of wine, once described: "There were excellent wine tasters in ancient Egypt, who were like the Sherry producers and Bordeaux wine brokers in the twentieth century. , you can confidently and professionally identify the quality of wine.”
Greece is the first country in Europe to start planting grapes and making wine. Some navigators brought back grape and wine-making technology from the Nile Delta.
Wine is not only the cornerstone of their splendid culture, but also an indispensable part of their daily lives. There are many descriptions of wine in the Greek Homer's epic poems (Iliad and Odyssey). In "The Iliad", wine is often described as black. And his understanding of the essence of life is also represented by an idyllic vineyard full of black grapes. According to research, ancient Greece had very developed agriculture in the Aegean Basin, and people mainly cultivated wheat, barley, olives and grapes. Most of the grape berries are used to make wine, and the remainder is dried. Almost every Greek has the habit of drinking wine. The brewed wine was packed in a special shape of clay pots (Figure 3) for storage and trade transportation. The large number of containers excavated along the Mediterranean coast are enough to illustrate the scale and routes of the wine trade at that time, showing that wine was an important role at that time. One of the trade goods. During the Mycenaens period (1600-1100 BC), grape cultivation in Greece was already very prosperous, and the wine trade reached Egypt, Syria, the Black Sea region, Sicily and southern Italy.
Wine is not only a commodity for trade, but also a part of Greek religious rituals. Before 700 AD, the Greeks would hold wine celebrations to express their worship of the mythical god of wine. The worship of the god Dionysos and viticulture related to wine and drunkenness were popular throughout Greece. Dionysus is the Greek god of wine and one of the most important and complex gods in Greece. Dionysus on the vase and the crazy woman following him (created by the painter Amasis) He is the son of Zeus and Semele under bizarre circumstances. The god Dionysus in Greece means happy life, games and grand festivals, because he likes to be among the bustle of priestesses with a glass of wine. The Greeks believed that he was the patron saint of certain festivals. A Neo-Athenian style Borghese pottery vase from the first century AD depicts the drunken god Dionysus being supported by Satyrs, the god of the forest. Dionysus, the cup in Dionysus' hand fell to the ground. Bacchus is the Roman god of wine. He is the Roman god who symbolizes grapes and wine, debauchery and debauchery. He is like the Greek god of wine Dionysus, but he played little role in Roman teachings. The dissolute and dissolute Bacchus and his followers (created by Cornelis De Vos) were especially popular among a small number of religious believers. of worship. In the mysterious atmosphere of the Dionysian festival, the believers performed such carnival dances that the Roman Senate had to intervene to quell the chaos. Regarding the birth of the god Bacchus, this scene is recorded on an ancient bas-relief in the Vatican Museum: After taking Bacchus out of the belly of the goddess Simle, Jupiter placed the little Bacchus in the 3 months in thigh. Little Bacchus came from the lap of Father God at full term. At this time, Hermes, the god of animal husbandry, stood aside, holding clothes in his hands, preparing to deliver the baby god. Then the three Parques goddesses who control life, death and destiny prayed for the newborn divine baby. The famous Italian painter Caravaggio (1573-1610) in the seventeenth century created many images of Bacchus with his "ruthless real" expression technique.
In the sixth century BC, the Greeks introduced grapes to Gaul (now France) through the port of Marseille, and passed on viticulture and winemaking technology to the Gauls. But at that time, grape and wine production in Gaul was not important. After the Romans learned viticulture and winemaking techniques from the Greeks, they fully promoted wine in the Italian peninsula. It soon spread to Rome and spread throughout Europe through the hands of the Romans.
In the first century AD, grapevines were spread throughout the Rhone Valley; in the second century, grapevines were spread throughout Burgundy and Bordeaux; in the third century, they had reached the Loire Valley; It finally appeared in the Champagne and Moselle Valley in the fourth century. The Gauls, who originally loved barley beer (cervoise) and mead (hydromel), quickly fell in love with wine and became outstanding wine drinkers. Grape grower. The wine they produced was so popular in Rome that the Roman Emperor Domitian ordered half of the vines in Gaul to be uprooted to ensure local grape growers in Rome.
Wine was an integral part of Roman culture and made a huge contribution to the economy of the Roman Empire. As the power of the Roman Empire slowly expanded, grapes and wine quickly spread to areas such as eastern France, Spain, southern Britain, the Rhine River Basin in Germany, and the east side of the Danube River. During this period, some countries implemented a ban on growing grapes, but wine was still very popular on the continent. Afterwards, agriculture in the Roman Empire gradually declined, and the vineyards also declined. The ancient Romans loved wine, and some historians attributed the decline of the ancient Roman Empire to the degeneration of the race due to excessive drinking by the ancient Romans.
In the early fourth century, the Roman Emperor Constantine officially recognized Christianity and required the use of wine in mass ceremonies, which encouraged the planting of grapevines. After the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century AD, Christian monasteries in the splintered Western Roman Empire (France, northern Italy and parts of Germany) recorded detailed records of the grape harvest and winemaking process. These meticulous records help develop grape varieties that are best suited for growing in specific farming areas. The development of wine in the Middle Ages benefited from the Christian Church. Wine is mentioned 521 times in the Bible. Jesus said at the Last Supper, "Bread is my flesh and wine is my blood." Christianity regards wine as the holy blood, and church personnel regard grape growing and wine making as work. Wine spread around the world with the missionaries.
Charlemagne, the "Holy Roman Empire" emperor of the Carolingian dynasty who ruled the Western Roman Empire (Frankish Kingdom) from 768 to 814 AD, whose power also affected the subsequent development of wine . The great emperor foresaw the prospect of vineyards spreading from southern France to northern Germany. The "Grandcru Corton-Charlemagne" top vineyard in the famous Burgundy region was once his property. The wines from the Burgundy region of France can be said to be models of traditional French wines. But few people know that its source is actually the church - the Cistercians.
The Cistercian monks can be said to be wine-making experts in the Middle Ages. This story dates back to 1112. At that time, an ascetic monk named Bernard de Fontaine led 304 believers to defect from the monastery of Cluny to the Cordo province in the Burgundy grape-growing region. Located in the north of Beaune, in a newly built small monastery in Citeaux, the Citeaux Order was established. The Cistercian precepts are very cruel. The average life span of a monk is 28 years. The main content of the precepts is to require the monks to smash stones in abandoned vineyards and taste the soil with their tongues. After Bernard's death, the power of the Cistercians expanded to the public areas of Córdo to make wine, and then spread to more than 400 monasteries across Europe.
The Cistercian monks were obsessed with the research and improvement of grape varieties. The outstanding Burgundy producer of the 20th century, Lalou Bize-Leroy, believed that Cistercian monks would taste the soil to identify soil quality. In fact, it was these monks who first proposed the term "cru". ) concept, that is, the same soil quality can produce grapes with the same taste and style.
That is, they cultivated the best grape varieties in Europe. In terms of wine-making technology, Cistercian monks are the source of traditional European wine-making spirituality. Around the thirteenth century, with the prosperity of the Cistercian Order, the wines of Cistercian monasteries throughout Europe gained an increasing reputation. In the fourteenth century, the bishops of Avignon were particularly fond of Burgundy wine. The generous Duke Philip of Burgundy was the famous publicist of his wine: At the Catholic Synod in Bruges in 1360, the participants He would provide them with as much wine as they could drink. Of course, Beaune's rare wine could only provide them with a little taste.
“Drink less but better” (Drink less but letter) is an immortal proverb about wine. But it is true that fine red Burgundy has never developed on a large scale since then; its history is rather that the Pinot Noir grown on the excellent soil of the Cordo province has been able to express its qualities to perfection. Producing in small batches in small barrels is their specialty. Especially after the French Revolution in 1789, due to the dissolution of the monasteries and the liquidation of the aristocratic estates of the old system, the vineyards in the Burgundy region were also reduced to pieces.
By the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the best wine in Europe was believed to be produced in these monasteries. The 16th-century tapestry depicts the wine-making process, and the red wine produced in the Burgundy region was considered Considered to be the finest wine. During this period, viticulture and winemaking techniques were introduced to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, North Korea and the Americas.
After Columbus discovered the New World, Spanish and Portuguese colonists and missionaries brought European grape varieties to South America in the 16th century and planted them in Mexico, the California Peninsula, and Arizona. Later, the British tried to introduce viticulture technology to the Atlantic coast of America. Unfortunately, the climate on the east coast of America was not suitable for growing grapes. Despite many efforts, due to the invasion of phylloxera, downy mildew and powdery mildew, and the The influence of climatic conditions in this area caused the failure of grape cultivation here. By the mid-19th century, some people used grafting technology to plant European grape varieties on American grape plants, using the immunity of American grapes to resist phylloxera pests and diseases. Only then did the wine industry in America and the United States gradually develop. Now wine is produced in both North and South America. Famous wine-producing areas include Argentina, California, and Mexico.
After the Middle Ages, wine was regarded as a source of joy and a symbol of happiness. And during the Renaissance era, he created many masterpieces.
Around the 17th and 18th centuries, France began to dominate the entire wine kingdom. The wines from the two major production areas of Bordeaux and Burgundy have always been the two pillars, representing two main different types of high-end wines. Wine: The thickness of Bordeaux and the elegance of Burgundy have become the basic criteria for making wine. However, the output of these two major production areas is limited and cannot meet the needs of the world. So starting in the 1960s and 1970s after World War II, some wineries and winemakers began to search for suitable soil and similar climate around the world to grow high-quality grape varieties, develop and improve brewing technology, and make the entire world The world wine industry is booming. In particular, the United States and Australia have adopted modern technology and market development techniques to create today's colorful wine world trends. In terms of global division, it is basically divided into two types: New World and Old World. The New World represents wine developed from Europe, such as the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and other emerging wine countries. Representatives of the Old World are mainly European countries with more than a hundred years of winemaking history, such as France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
In contrast, Europe has a longer tradition of growing grapes, and most viticulture and winemaking technologies were born in Europe. In addition, the fundamental difference between the New World and the Old World is that the wines of the "New World" tend to be industrially produced, while the wines of the "Old World" tend to be hand-made. The wine made by hand is the labor of a craftsman. Crystallization, while an industrial product is the product of a technological process and is a standardized product that is copied in large quantities.
There are different opinions about the origin of wine. Some say that it originated in ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, or the Greek island of Crete (ciete). According to the research and analysis of the existing wine archives, it is more precise that our ancestors brewed wine 10,000 years ago, and the wine culture has been passed down to this day.
According to historical data, grape cultivation and brewing technology spread to Greece with travelers and conquerors of new territories from Asia Minor (Asia Minor) and Egypt before reaching Greece and its islands. Crete, then via Sicily in Italy, Libya and Italy in North Africa, from the sea to the Provence region and the coastal areas of Spain in the Var Province (Var) in the southeast of France on the Mediterranean Sea; at the same time, by land, Entering the Central European countries from the Danube River Valley in Europe
In ancient Egypt, especially in the Nile River Valley, archaeologists discovered from the excavated tombs: a small round bottom, a thick round belly, and an upper neck. A large-mouthed earthen jar containing liquid was buried as a burial object; after research, it was found that this was an earthenware jar used by the ancient Egyptians to hold wine or oil; in Greece, during archaeological excavations, an ancient tomb was found on the wall. A relief from the second century BC; a scene of Apollo and Victoire offering grapes to the Creator; excavated in the ancient tomb of Nakht during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt There is a mural (fresco) on which there is a noble lady standing facing slightly to the left and wearing a white dress. Starting from her left heel, going from her head to her right heel, she is surrounded by a bunch of grape vine leaves. , and on both sides of it, there is a wolf-headed figure on the left, and a beautiful young lady on the right. They each hold an oblong wine glass as if pouring wine on the head of the hostess.
But by around 1085 BC, it is said that Osiris, the god of hell in Egyptian mythology, was recognized as the god of vines and wines; in the Neolithic Age, on the verge of the Black Sea Transcaucasian Anatolia (Aratolia (anciently known as Asia Minor)), Georgia and Armenia have become tribal areas. This is because these areas had a mild climate and fertile land at that time, so primitive tribesmen who were far away from the area moved here to settle. Grapes are grown in the tree-lined hilly areas, while agriculture is practiced in the vast fields of the plains. As a result, viticulture and winemaking spread increasingly to distant places.
Looking at the above historical stories, wine has provided a brand-new drink for all mankind, and has also provided a source of happiness for the survival and development of human society. As for the origin of wine, it is no longer important. It is left to historians to continue to explore and study academic issues. For modern people, drinking wine, especially expensive wine, is a wonderful enjoyment. And created a lot of wealth for mankind.
According to archaeological data, the first area where grapes were cultivated was between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea in Asia Minor and on their southern coast. About 7,000 years ago, grape cultivation also began in the South Caucasus, Central Asia, Syria, Iraq and other regions. In these areas, viticulture has gone through three stages, namely, the stage of collecting wild grape fruits, the stage of domestication and destruction of wild grapes, and the stage of viticulture spreading to other areas such as Egypt with travelers and immigrants.
A large number of precious cultural relics found in ancient tombs in Egypt (especially floating beaches) clearly depict the cultivation, harvesting of grapes and wine making by the ancient Egyptians at that time. The most famous one is the Phtah-Hotep tomb site, which has a history of 6,000 years. Western scholars believe that this is the beginning of the wine industry.
The first country in Europe to start planting grapes and making wine was Greece. Some travelers and conquerors of new territories brought viticulture and winemaking techniques from Asia Minor and Egypt to the Greek island of Crete, and gradually spread throughout Greece and its islands. 300 years ago, grape cultivation in Greece was extremely prosperous.
In the 6th century BC, the Greeks introduced wine originating from Asia Minor to Gaul (now France) through the port of Marseille, and passed on viticulture and winemaking technology to the Gauls. After the Romans learned viticulture and winemaking techniques from the Greeks, they quickly promoted them throughout the Italian peninsula.
Vine cultivation was very common in ancient Rome. The "Roman Law" (Twelve Tables, promulgated in 450 BC) stipulated that if someone steals from a vineyard, severe punishment will be imposed. . With the expansion of the Roman Empire, viticulture and winemaking technology quickly spread to France, Spain, North Africa and the Leger River Basin in Germany, and formed a large scale. To this day, these areas remain important grape and wine producing areas. From the 15th to the 16th century, viticulture and winemaking techniques were spread to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, North Korea and the Americas.
The mid-19th century was a period of great development for grape and wine production in the United States. In 1861, 200,000 grape seedlings were introduced from Europe and vineyards were established in California. However, due to the damage of phylloxera, almost all of them were destroyed. Later, native American grapes were used as rootstocks to graft European grapes to prevent phylloxera, and wine production gradually developed again. Wine is now produced in both North and South America. Argentina, California in the United States, and Mexico are all world-famous wine-producing regions.