Author: Libbie Agran

Tombs, Trellises and Troughs Wine history is in Egypt is painted on the walls of the ancient...

The Greeks were known for diluting their wine with water. There were two styles of wine making described in Greek literature: early harvest wines which were short lived and likely to sour and late harvest wines with high alcohol and a sweet rich taste. Most Greeks preferred the sweet wines made from ripe grapes. After harvest, the grapes were placed on mats in the sun where they baked until the grapes were shriveled to raisins with the sugar and flavor concentrated in the fruit. The shriveled grapes were placed in clay jars filled with grape juice for a week before being pressed and fermented.

When did man meet the vine and start making wine? It happened long, long ago. Archaeological evidence indicated that wine making has been around at least 8,000 years. Ancient clay pots, known as Kvevri, have been found in the Transcaucasus region. There are villages in the country of Georgia where wine making today is done in the ancient traditions.

Well, surely you remember Noah, the ship builder and sailor, who loaded his wife and the animals two by two onto his ark to save them from the giant flood. The Book of Genesis in the Bible tells the story that as soon as the great flood waters receded around 2350 B.C. Noah, his family and the animals, two by two, disembarked. Noah found a plot of land nearby and began to plant a vineyard. It may not have been the very first vineyard to be planted on earth, but it was the first documented ownership of a vineyard.