A very short history of wine

A brief look into the evolution of wine

It might seem mad to attempt a history of wine, cultural product par excellence, within the limited space of a single article, so great has been wine-making’s impact over centuries on entire communities and their livelihoods, landscapes, architecture, art and literature.

A few landmark moments, however, inform the history of the drink which has always benefitted from noble status.

Safe to drink 

The earliest traces of wine-making have been found in present-day Georgia and date from around 6000 BC, as humans evolved from hunter-gatherers to farmers. Drawings made in Egyptian tombs about 1500 BC illustrate the entire wine-making process.

Before the existence of hot drinks such as tea or coffee, water was a thirst quencher tainted by the risk of pollution. As the wine-making process inhibits bacteria, wine was considered safe to drink.

The earliest wines were stored in wood or simple pottery vessels. The Romans kept and carried wine in amphorae, tall narrow-necked pottery jars, which are currently enjoying a revival in the south of Portugal.

Glass bottles were a practical innovation first developed during the Renaissance, although the wine bottles we know did not appear until the 17th century.

Sealed first by cloth, cork, from Portuguese cork oak trees, was subsequently used as a stopper which also prevented oxidisation.

A valuable export product

With an economic horizon of at least 40 years – almost a lifespan in ancient times – vine planting became an indicator of a higher level of civilisation. However, this planting would only effectively flourish in environments of peace and stability, generators of faith in the future.

To grow vines for wine production increased the potential value of land, with a hectare of Attican vines yielding up to 20 times the gross product derived from cereals. In poor surface soil conditions, the wine vine drives its roots deep in search of food and water, collecting micro-nutrients that give good wine character.

For the Athenians, wine was a valuable export product which could be traded for slaves, gold or other prized metals. This trade implied ‘sophistication’ of wines, resination in the case of Attican wines, creating what we know today as Retsina.

The Greeks took vine cuttings to their colonies in the south of France, Italy, Sicily and Crimea.

Like all empires, the Roman Empire exploited the resources of the countries it conquered, sucking into Rome, by far the largest city at the time with its wealthy population of a million people, the finest available wines.

Sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar, the Phoenicians took the culture of the vine to Atlantic Spain and Portugal, and may also have traded wine for tin with the inhabitants of Cornwall.

Neither the Moors subsequently invading Europe from the south, nor the Vikings from the north made or consumed wine. For the Moors, the Prophet had banned all stimulants, but the Vikings were happy to absorb wine-making practices in the territories they conquered.

Clerical vineyards

Arguably the art of viticulture would have been lost in western Europe but for the abbeys and monasteries.

Between the end of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance, the Catholic Church was responsible for the preservation of viticulture, as well as many other types of farming.

The most important Roman Catholic ceremony, the Mass, made western Europeans the leading vintners of the world, even if today great wines are made by post-Christian people in the ‘Neo-Europes’ of California, Chile, Australia and New Zealand.

Conquest and trade

More than 40 vineyards in south-eastern England are listed in the Domesday Book of 1086, the Norman tax-census of their conquered land.

By the 12th century, lay growers in the Bordeaux region were making and exporting wine. An important seaborne trade developed with Bristol and London, exchanging wine for wool, whilst for almost three centuries from 1154 England controlled most of the wine-producing areas of Western France.

From 1400, vines followed the explorers to Atlantic Islands such as the Azores and Madeira, and later to America. The warm areas of southern Spain and Portugal were ideal for good fortified wines like Sherry, Port and Madeira, which were fortified with spirit or brandy facilitating transportation and export.

The New World

The wine vine is a Eurasian native (vitis vinifera) not naturally occurring outside the Old World. The first good Peruvian vintage was reported in the late 1550s, followed by Chile, and both countries soon began to export… to Europe.

The first vine cuttings were planted in California by priests (again!) in 1564. American wine production, initially spearheaded by California, has since spread to all 50 US states.

Post-World War II

For centuries, vintners made wine in roughly the same way as in medieval times, with Europe producing nearly all the world’s great wines. An early southern-hemisphere producer of fine wines, South Africa, whose wines however faded during much of the 20th century, is now enjoying a spectacular winemaking renaissance.

The decades since World War II have seen a worldwide revolution in wine making. Tractors have largely replaced horses or oxen; technology and mechanisation perform many tasks previously carried out by humans; trucks have replaced carts, and road tankers succeeded rail for transportation. In marketing and consumption, the grape variety is now often as significant as the vineyard’s location.

Many of the post-World War II innovations in wine-making have been generated in California, with biochemistry playing a game-changing role in combatting inflation in the cost of traditional wine-making methods.

Judgement of Paris

In 1976, a young British wine merchant, Steven Spurrier, organised a blind tasting in Paris of top-quality Bordeaux, Burgundy and California wines. To the amazement (and perhaps horror) of the assembled French oenophiles, the Californians achieved higher scores than the French. There was to be no looking back: the great wines of France had been challenged and they would now need to compete with the wines of the New World not to be knocked off their perch.

Although New World vineyards frequently allow for more efficient mechanisation, the contest between terroir (Old World) and technique (New World) is today becoming increasingly blurred.

Consultant winemakers fly between continents advising on the best practices of distant lands, and the wine professions have become more diverse and inclusive in gender and race.

Consumers, more likely now to have travelled to several wine-making countries, are keen to drink their wines when they return home. And as ever, taste in wine is influenced as much by fashion as by quality.

First published Essential Algarve October 2024