Tweet
San Jose Mercury News (California)
October 15, 2012 Monday
Five fascinating facts about wine in the Bible
By Jessica Yadegaran Contra Costa Times
It is difficult to grasp that one wild grape vine, vinis vinifera,
evolved over millions of years into what are now some 10,000 grape
varietals, including the California chardonnay or Argentine Malbec
that you're enjoying right ... this ... minute.
The grape's story is central to the Bible and some of the details of
its ancient beginnings will baffle you, including these five
fascinating facts from "Divine Vintage: Following the Wine Trail from
Genesis to the Modern Age" (Palgrave; $26) by Randall Haskett and Joel
Butler. The book comes out Nov. 13.
In 2011 the earliest winemaking facility was discovered in southern
Armenia. An excavation at the 6,000-year-old site revealed a
fermenting vat, the remains of a drinking cup made from animal horn,
storage jars, dried grapes, seeds, and the presence of malvidin, a
compound that gives red wine its color.
According to the authors' translations, it is possible that the
Israelites, long before Dom Perignon in Champagne, created sparkling
wine, this one red, and difficult to control and recreate: "For a cup
is in the hands of the Lord, and the wine foams" (Psalm 75:8).
People assume that ancient wine was red. But new research from
Egyptian tombs suggest that white wine was introduced as early as the
mid-second millennium BCE.
The first wine reviews go back to the second century CE, when
Athenaeus describes a white wine from near Lake Mareotis (modern-day
Egypt) that appears to be dry: "Excellent, white, fragrant, pleasant,
easily assimilated, thin, not likely to go to the head, and diuretic."
The ancients had a taste for well-aged wines. Thirty-year-old wines
were placed in King Tut's tomb to be enjoyed in the afterlife.
October 15, 2012 Monday
Five fascinating facts about wine in the Bible
By Jessica Yadegaran Contra Costa Times
It is difficult to grasp that one wild grape vine, vinis vinifera,
evolved over millions of years into what are now some 10,000 grape
varietals, including the California chardonnay or Argentine Malbec
that you're enjoying right ... this ... minute.
The grape's story is central to the Bible and some of the details of
its ancient beginnings will baffle you, including these five
fascinating facts from "Divine Vintage: Following the Wine Trail from
Genesis to the Modern Age" (Palgrave; $26) by Randall Haskett and Joel
Butler. The book comes out Nov. 13.
In 2011 the earliest winemaking facility was discovered in southern
Armenia. An excavation at the 6,000-year-old site revealed a
fermenting vat, the remains of a drinking cup made from animal horn,
storage jars, dried grapes, seeds, and the presence of malvidin, a
compound that gives red wine its color.
According to the authors' translations, it is possible that the
Israelites, long before Dom Perignon in Champagne, created sparkling
wine, this one red, and difficult to control and recreate: "For a cup
is in the hands of the Lord, and the wine foams" (Psalm 75:8).
People assume that ancient wine was red. But new research from
Egyptian tombs suggest that white wine was introduced as early as the
mid-second millennium BCE.
The first wine reviews go back to the second century CE, when
Athenaeus describes a white wine from near Lake Mareotis (modern-day
Egypt) that appears to be dry: "Excellent, white, fragrant, pleasant,
easily assimilated, thin, not likely to go to the head, and diuretic."
The ancients had a taste for well-aged wines. Thirty-year-old wines
were placed in King Tut's tomb to be enjoyed in the afterlife.