7,000 Years of Wine

7,000 Years of Wine

posted by Bruce Godfrey

Historians and archaeologists suggest that wine has been produced by the human race for perhaps 7,000 years. The earliest archaeological records suggest "wine stones" in the Caucasus mountains, in or near what is now the Republic of Georgia. Wine was highly symbolic in the introduction of Orthodox Christianity to Georgia, and to its later cultural and military resistance against Islamic invaders, whose abstinence from wine Georgians mocked through the carving of grape bunches and vineyards into castle and church walls. During the Soviet Union, Georgia's southern latitude, moderate, dry climate and fertile hills provided by far the best wine region of the U.S.S.R. To this day, one can buy Georgian wine at fine wine retailers, especially in northwest Baltimore County where Russian- and Ukrainian-American immigrants retain some of the taste preferences from their homeland.

I enjoyed a bottle of Georgian Khvanchkara some months ago - not in one sitting, of course, but my wife did not find it to her taste, so it was my treat over a week or so. I found it to have a strongly oaky taste, and was fuller of grape "mash" than most Americans expect in their wine (I know that a wine snob will email me and tell me that there is no "wine mash" but no other English word really conveys it for me.) But it was a treat, an unusual delight from about 8-9 time zones away.

This Khvanchkara is symbolic of why this new blog, Crabernet, exists. Wine is history, culture, religion, economics, tradition, family and a great delight. Wine manifests that we are who we have been and were and once had been. Unlike the soda pop of the day, producing even passable wine requires time, commitment, discipline, wisdom, a little fanaticism and more than a little luck. Wine connects us not just to the roots of Western Civilization but well before that civilization took root.

Wine was known to the People of Israel who, under whatever precise conditions and details, trekked out of bondage in Eqypt into the Negev and ultimately to the Land of Israel. Wine was already ancient when bartenders in Imperial Rome cut it with salt water to extend its volume. For some, wine is literally the transsubstantiated Divine Presence, a mystery of the Divine Liturgy in Orthodox Christianity, a mitzvah at Shabbat or the Seder table. Wine can also be pink 6 dollar plonk or, at the lowest level of vintner prestige, the low-quality fortified wines of ill repute, the dread Mad Dog 20/20, Ripple, Nighttrain and Thunderbird.

Crabernet will luxuriate in exploring wine in all its variety, glory, history, heritage and enjoyment. You will see posts here on "wine news", varietal grapes, varietal wines, wines from unusual places and of unusual flavors. You will see commentary on the law, economics and politics of wine, comparisons of wine accessories from cheap wine glasses through the infamously expensive but oh-so-beautiful Riedel stemware and non-stem wine glass models. You will see wine art, wine jokes, agronomy and viticulture and more than a taste of local pride in Maryland's small but very active wine industry.

Please enjoy.

Source: Crabernet

Tag: Food & Wine