Georgia finds reveal earliest evidence of grape wine-making

Fragments of 8,000-year-old pottery reveal the earliest evidence of grape wine-making, according to scientists.

The earthenware jars containing residual wine compounds were recovered from two sites south of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, according to researchers.

Images of grape clusters and a man dancing were found on some of the jars.

Prior to the find, the earliest evidence of wine-making was from pottery dating from about 7,000 years ago found in north-western Iran.

The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has published the report of the finds.

"We believe this is the oldest example of the domestication of a wild-growing Eurasian grapevine solely for the production of wine," said co-author Stephen Batiuk, a senior researcher at the University of Toronto, AFP Relaxnews reported.

"Wine is central to civilisation as we know it in the West. As a medicine, social lubricant, mind-altering substance and highly valued commodity, wine became the focus of religious cults, pharmacopoeias, cuisines, economies and society in the ancient Near East."

According to researchers, the pottery jars were discovered in two Neolithic villages, called Gadachrili Gora and Shulaveris Gora, about 50km (30 miles) south of Tbilisi.

According to David Lordkipanidze, director of the Georgian National Museum who helped lead the research, large jars called qvevri, similar to the ancient ones, are still used for wine-making in Georgia.

Scientific analysis of 8,000-year-old pottery jars unearthed in Georgia offers the world's earliest evidence of grape wine-making, dating the tradition almost 1,000 years earlier than previously thought, researchers said yesterday.

The world's very first wine, made from rice originated in China around 9,000 years ago, followed by the grape-based alcohol in Iran.

"We believe this is the oldest example of the domestication of a wild-growing Eurasian grapevine solely for the production of wine," said Batiuk.