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Although the cradle of the vine is to be sought in the Caucasus, wine has become one of the symbols of the European way of life.
Vines are one of the earliest plants to be domesticated, the Bible tells us in Genesis 9.20 that, “And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard”.
Domesticated vines seem to have been cultivated in the Caucasus as early as 5000 BCE. Throughout antiquity, wine has been credited with divine qualities.
Antiquity
In the Caucasus, grape pips occur in the Neolithic levels. Pips from cultivated grapes are found around 2000 BCE in the Labandon, Assyria, and Mesopotamia and associated with the Hittites in Anatolia.
In China, divinatory bones carry inscriptions describing rituals associated with wine.
An amphora that had contained wine has been found in Iran and dated to 5400 BCE. This is the earliest direct evidence for the production of wine. The story has it that a woman attempted suicide by drinking from a jar in which grapes were fermenting. Not only did she survive but she regained her will to live.
In Egypt the Pharaohs (although beer drinkers) has mastered the art of cultivating the wine on trellises and producing wine but reserved it to offer to the gods. Wine was aged in jars and we are told that six distinct varieties were produced. This Egyptian know-how was passed to the Greeks.
The cultivation of the vine spread rapidly with the expansion of Greek colonies along the shores of the Mediterranean and into southern Italy and Sicily. Wine was drunk mixed with water and spices. Hippocrates the “father of medicine” prescribed it as an antiseptic, a purge and a restorative.
A "Philosophy" of wine emerged :- one glass for health,
- the second for love and pleasures
- the third to sleep.
Romane Age retour en haut de pageThe Romans planted vines throughout Italy and their Empire from the Danube, Rhine and Moselle valleys to Hispania and Gallia. Lovers of luxury, they are credited with the fist “grand cru” the Falernum mentioned by Cicero in 121 BCE and by Pliny the Elder. Like most wines at the time, Falernum was produced as
- Austerum (strong,robust),
- Dulce (sweet)
- Tenue (light).The Romans were masters of the art of wine making using sulphur to preserve the wine, plaster and salt to acidify the must and marble chippings to reduce its acidity.
The Gaul retour en haut de page
The Gauls drank beer or mead by tradition.
Wine was imported to Gaul by Estruscan traders working along the Mediterranean littoral from about 600 BCE. They were succeeded by the Greeks who traded from their colony at Masalia (Marseille) founded in the seventh century BCE. From here the use of wine spread into the hinterland and amphorae used for its transport are frequently found.
With the Roman occupation of the province Italian wine began to exclude all other imports. In the two centuries preceding Caesar’s conquest of the three Gauls the cultivation of the vine had probably spread beyond the Province.
After the conquest and the Augustan settlement, the Gauls became active in the cultivation of vines and the distribution of wine. The Gaulish word for a tun (tunna) was borrowed into Latin and the barrel replaced the amphora.
The first vineyards in France were undoubtedly those of the Corbières, Minervois and the Côtes du Languedoc all probably planted before the conquest was completed.
With the Augustan settlement early in the first century CE, under which Lyons became the capital of Roman Gaul, planting was extended. Gaillac (the high country) supplied Bordeaux until the Bordelaise was planted around 43 CE during the reign of Claudius who began the conquest of Britain at that time.
Middle Ages retour en haut de page
The end of Roman dominion did not mean the end of wine production. Undoubtedly the rural unrest that ensued restricted the commercial exploitation of the vine.
The Catholic Church ensured continuity especially after the foundation of the great French abbeys Cîteaux, Cluny and their offshoots. Monks perpetuaded the traditional methods and developed a knowledge base. Both Benedictines and Cistercians were active in the study of the vine. Their work bore fruit in the excellence of the early vineyards, the Corton, Beaune, Chambolle, Volnay, Pommard, Vosnes, and Nuits.
Towards the end of the Middle Ages, Anjou, Charente, Poitou, and Gascony began to develop a reputation for their wine. John Lackland, King of England and his successors as Dukes of Aquitaine, promoted the development of the Bordeaux region by the sale, leasing or granting of fallow lands for planting.
Renaissance to 18 retour en haut de page
Renaissance Europe experienced a rapid increase in population and a commercial expansion which led to a great increase in wine consumption. In Paris, during the 15 th and 16 th centuries, the taverns proliferated. At the beginning of each year they had to pay a tavern tax to the abbeys who supplied them with wine. In Bordeaux region large vineyard estates began to emerge.
In 1656 a Dom Perignon, a Benedictine monk of the abbey of Hautvillers near Epernay, perfected the production of a sparkling wine known today the world over as Champagne.
The Dutch began to control the wine trade.
The general adoption of glass bottles and corks in the 18 th century simplified the delivery of wine to where it was drunk and allowed the wine producers and traders to replace the religious establishments as suppliers.
Parisian capital was invested in the great estates and in the wine producing chateaus, a good example being Rothschild in the Médoc.
Modern Age retour en haut de page
In the 19 th century railways greatly expanded the wine trade.
In the winter of 1863-1864 a destructive plant louse, the phylloxera, was introduced from America, the first outbreaks being in the Gard. This insect rapidly destroyed practically all of the vineyards in France. A remedy was found which necessitated grafting the European varieties on phylloxera resistant American wine stocks. This required a total reorganisation of the vineyards and caused a dramatic fall in production. These conditions encouraged fraudulent practises and led to the regulation of the wine industry.
On the 14 August 1889, a law was promulgated defining wine as “the product of the partial or complete fermentation of fresh grapes or their juice”.
The first national “Fraud Squad” for the wine industry was organised in 1905.
The vintners in the Midi rose in protest against these measures in 1907.
The period 1931-1939 was marked by excessive production.
In 1935 the Institut National des Appelations d’Origine (INAO) was set up to govern the production of France’s superior wines. Joseph Capus created the labelling code known as the Appelations d’Origine Controlée (AOC).
In 1949 regulations defining the Vins Délimités de Qualité Supérieure (VDQS) were introduced.
In 1979 regulations defining the Vins de Table (VT) Vins de Pays (VdP) were introduced.
The 1990’s saw a massive increase in the popularity of wine and growing interest in all aspects of wine making. Rising prices for this prestigious produce attracted investors and speculators. Simultaneously, a “race for quality” started, driven by the increasing discernment of the customers.
Today, New World wines (Californian, Chilean, Argentinean, Australian, New Zealand, and South African) offer serious competition to the European product. The “passion” for wine has become truly global.
Blessed beverage, bearer of religious symbols, praised by philosophers, inspirer of poets.“At times one finds an ancient bottle alive,
Remembering from whence it sprung,
A returning soul”.Baudelaire, Charles. Les fleurs du mal.
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