Posted by
dr-machine on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 9:11:51 PM
Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest production of wine,
made by fermenting grapes, took place in sites in Georgia and Iran,
from as early as 6000 BC. These locations are all within the natural
area of the European grapevine Vitis vinifera.
A 2003 report by archaeologists indicates a possibility that grapes
were used together with rice to produce mixed fermented beverages in
China as early as 7000 BC. Pottery jars from the Neolithic site of
Jiahu, Henan were found to contain traces of tartaric acid and other
organic compounds commonly found in wine. However, other fruits
indigenous to the region, such as hawthorn, could not be ruled out. If
these beverages, which seem to be the precursors of rice wine, included
grapes rather than other fruits, these grapes were of any of the
several dozen indigenous wild species of grape in China, rather than
from Vitis vinifera, which were introduced into China some 6000 years
later.
The oldest known evidence of wine production line
in Europe is dated to 4500 BC and comes from archaeological sites in
Greece. The same sites also contain the world’s earliest evidence of
crushed grapes. In Ancient Egypt, six of 36 wine amphoras were found in
the tomb of King Tutankhamun bearing the name "Kha'y", a royal chief
vintner. Five of these amphoras were designated as from the King's
personal estate with the sixth listed as from the estate of the royal
house of Aten. Traces of wine have also been found in central Asian
Xinjiang, dating from the second and first millennia BC.
In medieval Europe, the Roman Catholic Church was a staunch supporter
of wine since it was necessary for the celebration of Mass. Monks in
France made wine for years, storing it underground in caves to age.
There is an old English recipe which survived in various forms until
the nineteenth century for refining white wine using bad or
tainted bastardo wine. Wine was forbidden during the Islamic Golden
Age, until Geber and other Muslim chemists pioneered its distillation
for cosmetic and medical uses.
Wine is usually made from one or more varieties of the European species
Vitis vinifera, such as Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and
Merlot. When one of these varieties is used as the predominant grape
(usually defined by law as a minimum of 75% or 85%), the result is a
varietal, as opposed to a blended, wine. Blended wines are not
necessarily considered inferior to varietal wines; some of the world's
most expensive wines, from regions like Bordeaux and the Rhone Valley,
are blended from different grape varieties of the same vintage.
Wine can also be made from other species of grape or from hybrids, created by the genetic crossing of wine filler
. Vitis labrusca (of which the Concord grape is a cultivar), Vitis
aestivalis, Vitis rupestris, Vitis rotundifolia and Vitis riparia are
native North American grapes usually grown for consumption as fruit or
for the production of grape juice, jam, or jelly, but sometimes made
into wine.
Hybridization is not to be confused with the practice of grafting. Most
of the world's vineyards are planted with European V. vinifera vines
that have been grafted onto North American species rootstock. This is
common practice because North American grape species are resistant to
phylloxera, a root louse that eventually kills the vine. In the late
19th century, most of Europe's vineyards (only excluding some of the
driest vineyards in Southern Europe) were devastated by the bug,
leading to massive vine deaths and eventual replanting. Grafting is
done in every wine-producing country of the world except for Argentina,
the Canary Islands and Chile, which are the only ones that have not yet
been exposed to the insect.
In the context of wine production line,
terroir is a concept that encompasses the varieties of grapes used,
elevation and shape of the vineyard, type and chemistry of soil,
climate and seasonal conditions, and the local yeast cultures. The
range of possibilities here can result in great differences between
wines, influencing the fermentation, finishing, and aging processes as
well. Many wineries use growing and production methods that preserve or
accentuate the aroma and taste influences of their unique terroir.
However, flavor differences are not desirable for producers of
mass-market table wine or other cheaper wines, where consistency is
more important. Such producers will try to minimize differences in
sources of grapes by using production techniques such as
micro-oxygenation, tannin filtration, cross-flow filtration, thin film
evaporation, and spinning cones.
from:wiki