The First Drinkers

For many years most archaeologists believed the genesis of wine to have been in the Near East, in the area now known as Georgia and Iran, in around 6000 – 5000 BC. This Neolithic wine was first identified by Patrick E. McGovern and his team from University Museum, Pennsylvania, in the excavation site at Shulaveri, Georgia; Hajji Firuz Tepe, in Iran’s Zagros Mountains; and the ancient Mesopotamian city of Uruk. This then led to wholesale grape production in the nearby empires of Sumer and Egypt which began around the 3rd millennium BC.

However, a 2004 study by McGovern blew apart the history of wine and its origins. Chemical testing of pottery from the Neolithic site of Jiahu, in China’s Henan province, revealed traces of a fermented drink which combined hawthorn fruit or grape, beeswax and rice. This discovery, from the heart of ancient Chinese culture, showed that wine had in fact been enjoyed by the Chinese people as far back as 9000 BC – far outdating production in Western Asia. Yet this ‘rice wine’, still drunk in modern China, was a world away from the grape vine beverage which sparked the longstanding traditions of the great European empires.

The Laws of the Vines

As grape wine spread west from Mesopotamia, Sumer and Levant, its production became more regulated and a normal part of everyday life. Yet it appears that the ancient Egyptians took to wine with the greatest panache; Plutarch even said he was told that Osiris was the first to drink wine and tell man how to plant the vine.

Many types of vineyard were constructed, mostly around the Nile delta. The grapes would be crushed and fermented, and then rigidly labelled by a ‘Royal Sealer of Wine’ through a process akin to the French ‘Appellation Control’ laws. Wine in Egypt was even graded on its quality, and some later labels were so highly regarded that the Romans imported them.

Wine was particularly popular as an offering to the gods – and inevitably gods became patrons of the drink. In Egypt this was commonly Renentet, the goddess of plenty and harvests, who was usually honoured with a shrine in a wine-making facility. Hathor was also made the goddess of wine and intoxication. So if you fancied a tipple in ancient Egypt, you may have had a glass of ‘Star of Horus on the Height of Heaven’; ‘Chassut Red’; or even a fine ‘Sekem-Ka’.

Greek Hero

The high regard for wine from the ancient Greeks is best typified in a quote from the famed historian Thucydides: “The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learned to cultivate the olive and the grape.” Early Minoans loved Egyptian wine, and it became such a part of their everyday lives that they created Dionysus, also known as Bacchus; the god of wine. Minoan winemaking has been traced back to 1,600 BC – but the sophistication of production methods suggests that it had been occurring for a long time previously.

As the Greek empire swelled, after Philip of Macedonia’s numerous victories in the 4th century BC, it took in parts of southern Italy, North Africa, Georgia and Russia – taking with it the various winemaking techniques they had mastered. Thus wine became a truly pan-European beverage, and its production became clinical and deep-rooted in European culture. The wines of Hios, Thassos and Lesbos were highly sought-after, and by the time Athens fell to Rome in 86 BC the Greeks had already laid the foundations for modern winemaking we enjoy today.

Roman Decadence

As winemaking became more widespread and accessible, and as the democracies of Rome flourished, wine became the focus for a wide number of social events – not just the infamous parties and orgies that litter myth and legend. Wine was used to bring people together; to allow them to discuss and divulge when before they may not have had the capacity. Public bars sprung up everywhere, and it was in these taverns that plebes plotted the downfalls of Rome’s litany of tyrants and despots. Wine had not just become a thing of play, but also a tool for revolution.

As the Greeks before them, Rome expanded beyond recognition to far-flung areas like Britain, Germany, France and Iberia; and seemingly everywhere that was conquered was soon introduced to efficient winemaking skills. The wines of the Roman peninsula, and in particular Pompeii, were still the most prestigious; yet wines from France in particular gathered strength and became labels in their own right. Sweet wines were most popular, yet other types only served to develop Rome’s impressive viticulture and acted as a precursor to the multi-tiered European wine culture of today. Roman writers frequently waxed on about wine, including Pliny, Cato, Horace and Virgil – some with a less-than-favourable eye. Some saw it as a breakdown of society, while others saw the drink as a path to enlightenment.

Jesus the Drinker?

Dionysus had a huge cult following among followers of Roman polytheistic religion, yet wine would play its integral part in another significant religion during the empire - Christianity. Many scholars today believe Jesus Christ did indeed partake in the drinking of wine; a claim which seems to uphold his choice of wine as the substitute (or actual embodiment) for his blood at the Last Supper. Many accounts in the gospels speak openly about the drinking of wine, such as the wedding at Cana, in John 2:1-11; where Jesus turns water into wine. It must surely be assumed that if Jesus produced between 120 and 160 gallons of high-quality wine for the guests in his miracle, he must have approved of its consumption. The term ‘methustosin’ is also used in the passage, which is a Greek term meaning ‘well drunk’. This actually meant to be intoxicated, suggesting that Jesus actually got the wedding guests drunk – and maybe even got a little merry himself.

To The Bar!

By the Medieval era, wine was as commonplace as water in southern Europe, and adorned the tables of nearly every family. In contrast, the north and eastern areas were beginning widespread use of ale and beer due to the colder climate, too harsh for grape growing. Thus wine, which had to be exported from the south at great expense, was seen as a frivolity and a plaything for nobility and the upper classes. Due to the great demand from Christian denominations, wine production grew exponentially in areas where Benedictine monks practised most widely, such as France and Germany. It was from these holy annals that the modern doyens of winemaking would emerge, with orders of monks owning prominent vineyards in Champagne (Dom Perignon was a Benedictine monk), Burgundy and Bordeaux in France; Rheingau and Franconia in Germany.

Thus the great winemaking powers had been created, and so began a renaissance in the drink which would continue until the 1800s, when the Great French Wine Blight, caused by the Phylloxera louse, wiped out many of the continent’s favourite vineyards. Yet this would in fact strengthen many of the most powerful houses, and create the mixed flavours which typify European wines today.

Brave New World

Wine consumption in the Middle East, the birthplace of grape wine, has all but ceased (though some production continued). The rules of Islam forbid the drinking of wine, which is seen as a gift from God which man misused, and therefore relinquished his right to drink.

So the chalice is passed to the Europeans. The deeply embedded drinking culture has sustained wine throughout the Roman Catholic Church in particular – and Christianity as a whole – insofar as wine is used as an integral part of the sacrament of Mass. The first wines to emerge from outside the Eurasian continent came from the Americas, following their discovery by the conquistadores of Spain in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Spaniards immediately began making wine, and since then wine from South American countries has been growing in stature - as has that of other ‘New World’ countries such as the USA, South Africa and Australia. All were brought wine by their respective European settlers, and nowadays some of their wine is even regarded as highly as that of the well-heeled European producers.

Wine nowadays may be a far cry from the rice, beeswax and fruity wines of ancient China, Mesopotamia and Egypt – yet it is still enjoyed as widely as in the hedonistic phases of Greece and Rome - and to as much, if not more, excess.

Image by Jon Himoff. All rights reserved.

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About The Author

Sean Williams

Last three pieces by this author:

Join Heritage Key Live from Stonehenge Spring Equinox | Celebrate St. Patrick's by Visiting Loughcrew for Spring Equinox | What can you Expect from Stonehenge Spring Equinox 2010?

Sean is an English Literature graduate, who currently works as a writer and journalist in London. He enjoys ancient history, theatre and sport. He does not enjoy Big Brother.