A Neolithic jar — possibly used for brewing wine — found at the site of Khramis-Didi-Gora in Georgia, on display at the Georgian National Museum.Mindia Jalabadze/Georgian National Museum
The NY Times has a story about the discovery of 8000 year old wine. Looking for some vintage wine for the holidays? Well, researchers in Georgia have found wine that dates back to about 6000 BC. Too bad... or maybe too good, it's just wine residue. The find was described in a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The findings push back the previous date for the oldest evidence of winemaking by about 600 to 1,000 years, which Dr. McGovern previously identified in Iran. But it does not dethrone China as the location of the earliest known fermented beverage, which Dr. McGovern dated to 7,000 B.C. That drink, however, was most likely a cocktail consisting of rice, honey, hawthorn fruit and wild grapes, unlike this most recent finding, which was pure grape wine.
Wine culture has long been intertwined with the history of Georgia, where elaborate toasts are an important part of traditional feasts. Archaeologists have found evidence of its consumption there during the Bronze Age, Classical Period, Greco-Roman Period and Medieval times. Georgian wine was also among the most favored in the Soviet Union.
“Georgia had always suspected it had a Neolithic wine, there were several claims,” said David Lordkipanidze, the general director of the Georgian National Museum and an author on the paper. “But now there is real evidence.”
