The entirety of this exclusive material is only available to paid subscribers. Please consider giving a gift subscription to a friend for $5.
Wine’s long history
Some amazing stories poured from wine’s long history:
• Archeologists in Central China have found 9,000-year-old relics of winemaking in the same area famous for evidence of some of the earliest musical instruments, pictographic writing, and domesticated rice. So, humans may have been rocking out at a wine shop, catching up on the news, and enjoying a bowl of rice for a very, very long time.
The wine was made from rice, honey, and fruit—not grapes—but clearly appears to be wine. Heavy concentrations of calcium salt from tartaric acid—compounds that develop naturally in large amounts only in wine—are key clues.
• Oldest evidence of grape wine is 8,000 years old, found in a mound called Gadachrili Gora 20 miles south of Tbilisi, Georgia. Rough pottery found in a village from the late stone age had decorations that included bunches of grapes. Pollen analysis indicates the mound once was covered with grapevines.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Gus Clemens on Wine to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.