Recently, I had the pleasure of
attending the Festa Italiana (http://festaitaliana.us/index.html)
in nearby Vandergrift, PA. It is a wonderful
event celebrating all things Italian, and includes a wine competition. After speaking with many of the other amateur
winemakers at the Festa, most of whom were of Italian descent, I thought about
the history of the beverage that we love so much.
Where does wine come from originally?
A. Italy
B. France
C. Napa Valley
D. None of the above
Those of you that answered “D” None of the above” are correct
(and probably like myself assume that when provided with the “none of the
above” option it’s almost definitely the correct choice). You might be
surprised to hear that evidence so far suggests that wine and serious wine production
started in what is now Georgia (not the U.S. State), Iran, Turkey and
Armenia. At the moment there is evidence of wine making as far back as
7,000 BCE (with full-fledged wineries as far back as 4,500 BCE)! Can I
get a “Holy crap!”
There are lots of legends about the origins of wine, including a
Persian King’s rejected lover attempting to commit suicide by with spoiled
grapes that she found in the royal pantry. The legend says that she
didn’t die as she had expected, but instead felt a lot better and this
accidental discovery became a hit with the King and Persia from then on.
The truth of course it that to date we can’t be entirely sure as to why wine
came about, since its earliest history predates written records. But
since fermentation can occur naturally, it’s likely that (as the legend above
suggested) wine was an accidental discovery.
Wine quickly became an invaluable commodity, and not only
for recreational reasons, or religious significance, which it certainly had in
Ancient Greece, Egypt, and Rome, among others. Consider that a great deal
of human history faced the serious problem of undrinkable water and finding
ways to make it safe for drinking. Wine (and also beer) became a way to
make water safe to drink (as it acted as an antiseptic).
Let’s fast forward then to Italy in order to stay on
topic: Grape growing, was introduced to Southern Italy by Greek
settlers. By around 800 BCE Greek colonization was extensive and wine
making was already well established. The Greeks found Italy so perfectly
suited to grapevines and wine making that they named it Oenotria meaning
roughly “land of vines”. As is with most traditions and discoveries,
viticulture and viniculture innovations were adopted from the Greeks by the
others on the Italian Peninsula like the Etruscans.
The Etruscans practiced, and even improved, wine making, which
was then in turn taken on by the Romans. By the second century BCE wine
making had spread widely, as Romans invested a lot into vinicultural
technologies and arguably more importantly defeated other civilizations like
the Carthaginians (known wine makers).
In order to satisfy the enormous Roman thirst for wine, large
scale wine production in the form of slave labor on grand plantations came
about. At this point production was legally forbidden outside of Italy,
which made wine an extremely valuable commodity for the Romans to trade (usually
in exchange for more slaves). Wine production in Italy at this point was
so exaggerated that around 92 AD they had to actually pull out vines to make
room for growing food for the population! Romans are credited with
discovering that wine can improve when aged properly, and with perfecting
ageing processes and developing better containers (i.e.: the wooden barrel,
glass containers, and maybe even corks).
The eventual relaxation of laws regarding wine making outside of
Italy allowed for the rest of Europe to produce their own wines, some of which
prospered very quickly, like France. Demand for wine decreased after the
fall of the Roman Empire, but some credit the persistence of the wine making
tradition in Italy to the Roman Catholic monks who continued to produce wine
through the Dark Ages because of their faith.
In the 19th and 20th centuries
Italian wine suffered a great deal of criticism as being poor in quality due
mainly to overproduction and a lack of regulations guiding certain
aspects. Italy eventually responded by adopting a similar appellation
system to France’s which includes the
DOCG and DOC designations you might be familiar with among others.
Today, Italy tangos with France each year for the top spot as
largest wine producing country in the world. All 20 regions of Italy
produce wine, with some being considered among the best wines in the
world. Italian wines today enjoy a reputation for being incredibly “food friendly”,
meaning they go well with a large variety of different dishes, Italian or
otherwise. Italy is home to more than 1,000 native varieties of grapes,
and is finally bouncing back from past criticisms. It’s reminding the
world of some of the reasons why Italian wine is so great: namely the great variety
in grapes, soils, and regions, means you can drink a different wine every night
of the year, without getting bored (and without going broke for that matter).
Let’s end on one of many wine related Italian proverbs:
L’acqua fa male e il vino fa cantare.
“Water does harm and wine makes you sing”
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