Wine, Beer and Spirits Part 3 Brief History of Wine The time date for the first evidence of wine and winemaking get pushed back each time new archaeological discovers and digs find pre-history pottery with wine and wine like products. We may never know when and who first enjoy the beverage produce by grapes or fruit products. As of 2005 the latest date is around 9,000 years ago in China near Jiahu where pottery jars containing trace of rice, honey and fruit like grapes were found.
See these sites for more information:
http://www.bigpedia.com/encyclopedia/Wine#History
and
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4078947.stm
For me the most important date is when an individual discovers for them self the joy of wine. There are some poetic dates like when the young lady found jars that the King had marked poison. Wanting to end it all because she was not held in high regard by the King, drank the poison and woke up to find the poison tasted good. The story is that the King loved grapes and had grapes placed into pottery jars to preserver them for future enjoyment. This seems to show that whereever grapes are there is going to be wine if the grapes are not eaten before they begin to ferment.
The grape vines have been around long before man can on to the scene. Fossil evidence that date back to 37 million years ago and grape seeds fossils found in caves from about 2 million years have been discovered. There is evidence that the Egyptians around 2500 BCE had a tax code on wine and that around 1800 BCE Hammurabi's legal code included wine in the legal system.
The festival of Parilia establishes the date of the founding of Rome as 21 April 753 BC. The Roman tradition of celebrating the festival of Parilia included the drinking of a beverage called burranica, which is a combination of milk and boiled wine. This celebration, much like Americans in the United States celebrating the 4th of July requiring fireworks as a tradition, this yearly event required wine as part of the ceremony and tradition. Where ever the Romans colonized they brought grape vineyard to produce wine to be used to celebrate the festival of Parilia. The Romans developed vineyards in the river valleys including areas of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Loire in France and Mosel and Rhine rivers in Germany. Before the Romans withdrew in the fifth century from these regions, the ground work for some of the most famous vineyards in our modern world had been laid.
In the Middle Ages the Church and Government of Emperor Charlemagne went to great length to legislate the quality of wine. Wine was one of the main components of the Church's ceremony. The Church was given more and more land by Kings and Lords alike, the Church turned to the making of wine as a product to increase its wealth. As monasteries of the Church expanded, more and more vineyard land was developed and greater areas of land came under the Church's control. In 1112, the Church Order of Benedictines established the walled vineyard of Clos de Vogeot in the region of Burgundy, France and the Steinberg vineyard in the region of Reingau, Germany, where both still produce some of the finest wines of their type in the world. With the exception of the Bordeaux region, the Church owned or create most of the great vineyards of Europe.
Up to the 17th century in Europe wine was the most storable beverage to drink. Water was unsafe and ales and beer without the preservative of hops spoiled. Coffee, tea and spirits were yet to be introduced as a replacement for water or wine as everyday beverages.
With advances in technology during the 17th century, new beverages came available and the wine industry needed to keep up. The new technology advanced the glass blowing and bottle making processes. The use of cork and the corkscrew were perfected. The new technology brought about a technological change that we still celebrate or should I say celebrate with. The advances in bottle making made possible for the cellar-master at the Abbey of Hautviller to prefect the "drinking of stars," as he described it. He had pioneered the art of blending grape varietals to achieve a wine that was more pleasing to the ever increasing drinking public. The blending produced a second fermentation because the different varietals had different residual sugars. This process is known today as Methode Champenoise. The Abbey is in the Champagne district; thus the wine is known as Champagne named after the region. With the production of Champagne came a new category of wine, sparkling. The lesson learned here is that wine is a personal preference not controlled by law but mankind's desire to enjoy life.
The 1700's was also time of perfecting the process of making fortified wines. To reduce the weight of wine for shipment to areas that did not produce grapes or wine and idea to reduce the volume and weight by cooking part of the water from the wine lead to "burnt" wine or distilled wine. It was later learned that adding "burnt" wine to still wine either before or during the fermentation process would lead to a higher alcohol content percentage. Port and Sherry are but a few of these new fortified wine products.
The 1800's is known as Europe's Golden Age of wine. By the mid-1800', Napoleon's power and influence encouraged may of the French banking families to invest in Bordeaux. Quality became the main issues for the bankers wanted a return on their investments. Bankers like Rothschilds and Pereires pushed the issue of ranking the Bordeaux wines. This ranking now known as "The 1855 Classification of the Medoc," was begun. The 61 leading chateaux (houses) of the Bordeaux region were classified from "first growth" to "fifth growth." Each growth was determined by the averaging of the prices that the various chateau's wines had sold for over the previous one hundred years. Each chateau could place their "growth" ranking on their label. In 1866 the content percentage of alcohol was required to be added to the chateau label. The Rothschilds would not get their Chateau Mouton label reclassified from a "second growth" to a "first growth" until 1973.
In the United States in the 1800's California's statehood and the Gold Rush lead to California quickly becoming the leading producer of wine in the United States. In 1870 the California Governor appointed Hungarian born Ergots Haraszthy to study and define the wine growing methods and grape varietals. Haraszthy and his study is responsible for over 300 different varieties of grapes being brought to the California area, helping make California's wine industry what it is today.
During this Golden Age, wine represented over 80% of Italy's economy. France had seen year after year of successful vintages. Then it struck. Disaster in the vineyards. Almost every vine rootstock of Europe was destroyed. The rush to advance vineyard and public demand for wine caused an American rootstock to be brought to Europe. An insect, phylloxera came with the American vines. The phylloxera cause the European vines to mildew. The mildew caused the European vines rootstock to rot. Entire vineyards were destroyed. Nothing could be done to stop the detestation. But contained in every issue is the solution. By grafting what vines still living to American rootstock the vineyards could be saved. It was the American tolerant rootstock that prevented almost every vine in Europe and even the New World from being destroyed. Some wine experts say that the European wines produced post-phylloxera are not as great as the pre-phylloxera. But, again taste is subjective.
With all wines history government quality control regulations of the wine industry was not introduced until 1935 in France. France's government passed several regulations to govern the grower's use of grape varietals, growing methods, yields, alcohol levels and choice of vineyard sites. These regulation are what the wine industry know as A.O.C. (Appellation d'Origine Controlee). Today in the new era of government control, almost every grape varietal, growing method and some part of yield, alcohol levels and vineyard site is controlled to some degree in every wine growing country and region.
In late 1940's the scientific era of winemaking begins in the United States and especially in California. Many legal restriction in Europe prevented the experimentation in new wine processes. The United State got a jump on all other wine growing regions, with it advances in refrigeration and the adoption of new methods. The University of California at Davis lead the way and has become one of the world centers for winemaking and viticulture.
Since the mid-1970's the wine industry has enjoyed a new Golden Age with consumer involvement. The consumer can now be their own expert with charts, books, magazines, clubs and tastings.
When dealing with wine, knowledge is power but tasting is better. Happy Health and Happiness
Share with me at:
The MUSEUM at Zazzle
http://www.zazzle.com/the_museum*/
The MUSEUM at Qassia
http://themuseum.qondio.com/*
AdSense, jGibney, Photoart, The MUSEUM, The MUSEUM Zazzle, Copywriting, Ad, Money, Travel, Art,
zzzzz
