Georgia—Cradle of Ancient Wine?

The Transcaucasus Region Is a Prime Candidate for the Origin of Wine

Aug 19, 2008

Several regions have been studied in connection with the search for the earliest domesticated grapevines. These include western Iran, the Levant, Armenia, and Georgia.

With the help of modern analytical tools such as liquid chromotography, nuclear magnetic resonance instruments and DNA sequencing, the answer to this ago-old question may be at hand.

Wild grapevines are known to grow throughout the Middle East and Europe, but these are unsuitable for winemaking. The most common species, vitis vinifera sylvestris, is characterized by large, round, bitter seeds and inadequate sugar levels to produce acceptable alcohol levels. Nevertheless, we know that the history of winemaking in this part of the world goes back as far as civilization itself.

The book of Genesis informs us that upon leaving the famous ark, Noah planted a vineyard. The parallel flood story found in the Epic of Gilgamesh also refers to a fruit that seems to describe grapes. But when and where did the unruly vitis vinifera sylvestris first become domesticated into the winegrape species we are most familiar with—vitis vinifera vinifera?

There are 230 references in the Bible to wine (yes, I counted them), mostly in the Old Testament. This argues for wine as a common feature of that culture. Israeli wine today is very likely the finest wine produced anywhere in the Middle East or Caucasus region. It is widely believed that the Egyptian tomb paintings that depict wine in royal settings show wine as an important commodity thousands of years B.C.E. But only recently did we have the necessary tools to determine the contents of the ancient amphorae with certainty. Paleoarchaeologists have now determined that pharaoh Amenophis III—one of Egypt's greatest and most powerful—was laid to rest with approximately 6,000 liters of wine!

We don't yet know whether the modern winegrape vitis vinifera vinifera has a single origin. But if it does, it appears that the most likely candidate is Georgia. The oldest graped remains known at this time are from the region of Gora in Georgia. These remains are in the form of dessicated grape seeds, or pips. Their analysis shows them to be 6,000 years old. For those who still adhere to the biblical chronology postulated by Irish Archbishop Ussher in 1650, winemaking even predates creation itself.

Today even after the communist regime under Mikhail Gorbachev reduced Georgia's wine production by two-thirds in the interest of lowering alcohol consumption in the U.S.S.R., the Republic of Georgia produces more than 50 wines from around 500 different winegrape cultivars. Some of these are modern hybrids resulting from the crossing of native American grapes (v. labrusca) with wild Georgian grapes, but traditional European varieties are becoming increasingly dominant.

Winegrape farming is becoming a burgeoning industry all around the Black Sea, particularly in Bulgaria and in every country with a sizeable Christian population, such as Armenia and Georgia. If the secularist movement succeeds in Turkey, we may be importing wine from that country as well.

Our tasting panel reviewed some of the recent Bulgarian wines but we've not found a source of Georgian wine as of the present. So far, we've not found the level of refinement and complexity that will guarantee a New World market for these wines, but winemaking in the Black Sea region is bound to improve steadily, as it has elsewhere.

The copyright of the article Georgia—Cradle of Ancient Wine? in New World Wine is owned by Alan Boehmer. Permission to republish Georgia—Cradle of Ancient Wine? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.