I’ve just read about prisoners making wine out of fruit cocktail and stale bread.  As gross as that sounds, it got me thinking about the origin of wine.  Was wine an accident of old grapes and bread.  Did a house servant of yesteryear noticed the chickens staggering around and singing off-key after devouring last night’s table scraps?  Did that servant then think, hey, I’d like to do that?

Traces of wine have been found in pottery that dates as far back as the Neolithic period.  This period was the beginning of farming: the planting of seeds, the organizing of crops, the harvesting of grains.  Also during this period, grains were first ground into flours.  Towards the end of the Neolithic period (around 6000 BC) animals were used in farming as well as domesticated.

Anyone thinking chickens?

The pottery jars with the wine traces were found in what is today Georgia (not the state, the country).  Also in regions of current Iran and Iraq.  This region was populated by wild grapes, which were smaller and more bitter than the grapes from the Far East.

My house servant is looking pretty good for this.

Although the origins of wine are still unknown (maybe I should submit my theory) the oldest known winery, according to archeologists, was found in January 2011 in an Armenian cave.  Weirdly, the world’s oldest leather shoe (only one shoe) was also found in this cave.  Even in 4000 BC wine was causing people to lose their clothing.

Anyone seen my glass?