Wine knowledge

Conoscere Il Vino
History of wine
 
The wine is a beverage rich in history, full of charm, always present, from the dawn of humanity in the affairs of men in every land and home. 

The term "wine" stems from the Sanskrit verb vein ("love"), hence also the Latin name for Venus the goddess Venus. 

In practice, what wine? 

The wine is a beverage obtained by fermentation (total or partial) of the fruit of the vine, grapes (either pressed or not), or must. The wine can be obtained from grapes of the Vitis vinifera or from a cross between this species and other species of the genus Vitis; in Italy for the production of wine grapes can be used only to Vitis vinifera. 

A glass of wine tells millennia of human history. Scholars in the twentieth century have sought to discover what the earth hides the sight of men have encountered randomly in the oldest wine jar never found. In 1996, in fact, an American archaeological mission, from the University of Pennsylvania and directed by Mary Voigt, found in Hajji Firuz Tepe in the Neolithic village in northern Iran, a jar of clay, with a capacity of 9 liters containing a substance from dried grapes.The news, reported by Corriere Science 15 October 2002, added that the finds date back to 5100 BC, then 7000 years ago, but specialists say that the wine was produced for the first time, perhaps accidentally, between 9 and 10,000 years ago in the Caucasus. Indeed, the first wine was produced entirely by accident (as happened with the unleavened bread) for the fermentation of grape accidentally forgotten in a container. 

The Bible (Genesis 9:20-27) attributes the discovery of the process of wine to Noah, a descendant of Adam and Eve from only 10 generations after the Flood, he planted a vineyard with the fruit of which he drank the wine binge. 

The Roman Empire gave a major boost to the production of wine, which goes from being an elitist product to become an everyday drink. In this period of the vine crops spread over most of the territory, and with the increase of production also increase consumption. 

Anyway, the wine produced in those days was very different from the substance we know today. Because of preservation techniques, the wine turned out to be a syrupy substance, very sweet and very alcoholic. It was therefore necessary to extend it with water and add honey and spices, to get a taste nicer. 

During the Middle Ages will be born all those techniques of cultivation and production will reach virtually unchanged until the eighteenth century, when the production has a "modern". This is due to stabilization of the quality and taste of wines, and the introduction of bottles and corks. 

In the twentieth century but it was originally from France, the introduction of regulations which go to regulating the manufacture (origin, define the areas of production, etc..) Leading to an increase in the production of quality wine at the expense of quantity 



 

 

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