Wine

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This article is about the drink. For other uses, see Wine (disambiguation).

Wine

Glasses of red and white wine

Type Alcoholic beverage

Alcohol by volume 6–21%

Ingredients Varies; see Winemaking

 Red
Variants
 White

 Rosé

 Orange

 Sparkling

 Dessert
16th-century wine press

Han dynasty tomb brick showing workers brewing alcohol

Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes

the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in
the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are major factors in
different styles of wine. These differences result from the complex interactions between
the biochemical development of the grape, the reactions involved in fermentation, the
grape's growing environment (terroir), and the wine production process.
Many countries enact legal appellations intended to define styles and qualities of wine.
These typically restrict the geographical origin and permitted varieties of grapes, as well
as other aspects of wine production. Wines not made from grapes involve fermentation
of additional crops, including rice wine and other fruit wines such
as plum, cherry, pomegranate, currant and elderberry.
Wine has been produced for thousands of years. The earliest evidence of wine is from
ancient China (c. 7000 BC),[1][2][3][4][5] Georgia (6000 BC),[6][7] Persia (5000 BC),
and Italy (4000 BC). New World wine has some connection to alcoholic beverages
made by the indigenous peoples of the Americas, but is mainly connected to
later Viking area of Vinland and Spanish traditions in New Spain.[8][9] Later, as Old World
wine further developed viticulture techniques, Europe would encompass three of the
largest wine-producing regions. Today, the five countries with the largest wine-
producing regions are in Italy, Spain, France, the United States, and China.[10]
Wine has long played an important role in religion. Red wine was associated
with blood by the ancient Egyptians[11] and was used by both the Greek cult of
Dionysus and the Romans in their Bacchanalia; Judaism also incorporates it in
the Kiddush, and Christianity in the Eucharist. Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Israeli wine
cultures are still connected to these ancient roots. Similarly the largest wine regions
in Italy, Spain, and France have heritages in connection to sacramental wine, likewise,
viticulture traditions in the Southwestern United States started within New Spain
as Catholic friars and monks first produced wines in New Mexico and California.[12][13][14]

Contents

 1History
o 1.1Etymology
 2Styles
o 2.1From grapes
o 2.2From other fruits and foods
 3Grape varieties
 4Classification
o 4.1European classifications
o 4.2Beyond Europe
 5Vintages
 6Tasting
 7Collecting
 8Production
o 8.1Exporting countries
 9Consumption
 10Culinary uses
 11Religious significance
o 11.1Ancient religions
o 11.2Judaism
o 11.3Christianity
o 11.4Islam
 12Health effects
o 12.1Short-term
o 12.2Long-term
 13Forgery and manipulation
 14Packaging
 15Storage
 16Professions
 17See also
 18References
 19Further reading
 20External links

History[edit]
The Areni-1 cave in Armenia is the world's oldest known winery.[15]

Main article: History of wine

The earliest known traces of wine are from Georgia (c. 6000 BC),[6][7][16][17][18][19] Iran (Persia)
(c. 5000 BC),[20][21] and Sicily (c. 4000 BC).[22] Wine reached the Balkans by 4500 BC and
was consumed and celebrated in ancient Greece, Thrace and Rome. Throughout
history, wine has been consumed for its intoxicating effects.[23][24][25]
The earliest archaeological and archaeobotanical evidence for grape wine and
viniculture, dating to 6000–5800 BC was found on the territory of modern Georgia.[26]
[27]
 Both archaeological and genetic evidence suggest that the earliest production of wine
elsewhere was relatively later, likely having taken place in the Southern
Caucasus (which encompasses Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan), or the West
Asian region between Eastern Turkey, and northern Iran.[28][29]
The earliest evidence of a grape and rice mixed based fermented drink was found in
ancient China (c. 7000 BC),[1][2][3][4][5][30] earliest evidence of wine in Georgia from 6000 BC,[31]
[32][33]
 Iran from 5000 BC,[20] and Sicily from 4000 BC.[22]
The earliest known wineries from 4100 BC is the Areni-1 winery in Armenia.[15][34]

Detail of a relief of the eastern stairs of the Apadana, Persepolis, depicting Armenians bringing an amphora,

probably of wine, to the king

A 2003 report by archaeologists indicates a possibility that grapes were mixed

with rice to produce mixed fermented drinks in ancient China in the early years of the
seventh millennium BC. Pottery jars from the Neolithic site of Jiahu, Henan, contained
traces of tartaric acid and other organic compounds commonly found in wine. However,
other fruits indigenous to the region, such as hawthorn, cannot be ruled out.[35][36] If these
drinks, which seem to be the precursors of rice wine, included grapes rather than other
fruits, they would have been any of the several dozen indigenous wild species in China,
rather than Vitis vinifera, which was introduced 6000 years later. [35]
The spread of wine culture westwards was most probably due to the Phoenicians who
spread outward from a base of city-states along the Mediterranean coast of what are
today Lebanon, Israel, Syria, and Palestine.[37] The wines of Byblos were exported to
Egypt during the Old Kingdom and then throughout the Mediterranean. Evidence
includes two Phoenician shipwrecks from 750 BC discovered by Robert Ballard, whose
cargo of wine was still intact.[38] As the first great traders in wine (cherem), the
Phoenicians seem to have protected it from oxidation with a layer of olive oil, followed
by a seal of pinewood and resin, similar to retsina. Although the Nuragic culture in
Sardinia already had a custom of consuming wine before the arrival of the Phoenicians.
[39][40]

The earliest remains of Apadana Palace in Persepolis dating back to 515 BC include

carvings depicting soldiers from Achaemenid Empire subject nations bringing gifts to the
Achaemenid king, among them Armenians bringing their famous wine.
Literary references to wine are abundant in Homer (8th century BC, but possibly relating
earlier compositions), Alkman (7th century BC), and others. 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 originating from the
king's personal estate, with the sixth from the estate of the royal house of Aten.[41] Traces
of wine have also been found in central Asian Xinjiang in modern-day China, dating
from the second and first millennia BC.[42]

Pressing wine after the harvest; Tacuinum Sanitatis, 14th century

The first known mention of grape-based wines in India is from the late 4th-century BC
writings of Chanakya, the chief minister of Emperor Chandragupta Maurya. In his
writings, Chanakya condemns the use of alcohol while chronicling the emperor and his
court's frequent indulgence of a style of wine known as madhu.[43]
The ancient Romans planted vineyards near garrison towns so wine could be produced
locally rather than shipped over long distances. Some of these areas are now world-
renowned for wine production.[44] The Romans discovered that burning sulfur candles
inside empty wine vessels kept them fresh and free from a vinegar smell. [45] In medieval
Europe, the Roman Catholic Church supported wine because the clergy required it for
the Mass. Monks in France made wine for years, aging it in caves.[46] An old English
recipe that survived in various forms until the 19th century calls for refining white wine
from bastard—bad or tainted bastardo wine.[47]
Later, the descendants of the sacramental wine were refined for a more palatable taste.
This gave rise to modern viticulture in French wine, Italian wine, Spanish wine, and
these wine grape traditions were brought into New World wine. For example, Mission
grapes were brought by Franciscan monks to New Mexico in 1628 beginning the New
Mexico wine heritage, these grapes were also brought to California which started
the California wine industry. Both of these regions eventually evolved into American
wine's oldest and largest wine producers respectively. [48][49][50] Earlier Viking expeditions
of Vinland recorded the first grape vines found in the New World, [51] and prior to the
Spanish establishing their American wine grape traditions in California and New Mexico,
both France and Britain had unsuccessfully attempted to establish grapevines
in Florida and Virginia respectively.[52]
Etymology[edit]

Map showing the words for wine in European languages

The English word "wine" comes from the Proto-Germanic *winam, an early borrowing

from the Latin vinum, Georgian ღვინო, "wine" or "(grape) vine", itself derived from
the Proto-Indo-European stem *win-o- (cf. Armenian: գինի, gini; Ancient
Greek: οἶνος oinos; Aeolic Greek: ϝοῖνος woinos; Hittite: wiyana; Lycian: oino).[53][54][55] The
earliest attested terms referring to wine are the Mycenaean Greek 𐀕𐀶𐀺𐄀𐀚𐀺 me-tu-wo ne-
wo (*μέθυϝος νέϝῳ),[56][57] meaning "in (the month)" or "(festival) of the new wine",
and 𐀺𐀜𐀷𐀴𐀯 wo-no-wa-ti-si,[58] meaning "wine garden", written in Linear B inscriptions.[59][60][61]
[62]
 Linear B also includes, inter alia, an ideogram for wine, i.e. 𐂖.
The ultimate Indo-European origin of the word is the subject of some continued debate.
Some scholars have noted the similarities between the words for wine in Indo-European
languages (e.g. Armenian gini, Latin vinum, Ancient Greek οἶνος, Russian вино [vʲɪ
ˈno]), Kartvelian (e.g. Georgian ღვინო [ɣvinɔ]), and Semitic (*wayn; Hebrew ‫יין‬ [jajin]),
pointing to the possibility of a common origin of the word denoting "wine" in these
language families.[63] The Georgian word goes back to Proto-Kartvelian *ɣwino-,[64] which
is either a borrowing from Proto-Indo-European[64][65][66][67][68][69] or the lexeme was specifically
borrowed from Proto-Armenian *ɣʷeinyo-, whence Armenian gini.[70][71][72][73][64] An alternate
hypothesis by Fähnrich supposes *ɣwino-, a native Kartvelian word derived from the
verbal root *ɣun- ('to bend').[74] See *ɣwino- for more. All these theories place the origin of
the word in the same geographical location, South Caucasus, that has been established
based on archeological and biomolecular studies as the origin of viticulture.

Styles[edit]
Wine is made in many ways from different fruits, with grapes being the most common.
From grapes[edit]
The type of grape used and the amount of skin contact while the juice is being extracted
determines the color and general style of the wine. The color has no relation to a
wine's sweetness—all may be made sweet or dry.