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WINE HISTORY around Mediterranean sea and in Luberon
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It appears that the first time mankind tried to cultivate the wild vine, similar to a creeper, in order to make wine, was in the Caucasus and in Mesopotamia. Recent archaeological excavations at a site located in the south of Armenia, the site Areni-11, have revealed a wine-making industry more than 8,000 years old. This discovery pushes back the previous estimates, and may suggest that the cradle of winemaking was in the Transcaspian.
Vine cultivation then developed in Egypt, as shown in the scenes found in the bas-reliefs of the tombs of the high priests discovered at Thebes, the first known representations of the winemaking process estimated to be around 2500 BC, then it was the turn of Greece2, whose mythology traces the invention of wine to the shepherd Staphylos, and finally the Roman Empire.
Whether he is called Bacchus or Dionysus, the God of wine and vines represents the fascination man has hadfor winefor thousands of years and is evidenced bythemany and varied illustrationsand artistic representations such as the mosaics found in Pompeiior, closer to home,major works such as the” Wedding of Cana” de Veronese.
Thanks to the Phoenicians, the wine trade thrived throughout the Mediterranean and one species of vine, "vitis vinifera", gave birth to almost all the wine in the world, the differences in the individual wines being the types of soil, the winemaking process, the climatic conditions and the grape varieties. The first Phocaean wine sales were recorded in Marseille.
According to Thucydides, "The Mediterranean peoples only began to emerge from barbarism when they learned to cultivate the olive and the vine."
Wine production continued under Julius Caesar and then the Gauls, who discovered that aging the wine in oak barrels further enhanced the winemaking process. And many ancient wine vats can be found in the rocky caves of the Vaucluse department, especially in Ménerbes and Vénasque. Indeed, it is in the Vaucluse, in Cabrières d'Aigues, that a carved bas-relief was discovered representing a barge carrying wine barrels from the time of Emperor Augustus, having been made in honour of a local wine merchant.
However, with the fall of the Roman Empire production declined and wine was mostly used in church communions. In the Middle Ages, the quality improved, with monks working in the vineyards, giving rise to reputable vineyards that are still with us to this day. The wine then tasted similar to that we know today as in Antiquity, it was diluted with water and mixed with herbs, spices, and honey. The expansion of Christianity leads directly to the expansion of vineyards and wine production.
The evolution of technology and the invention of the bottle made the preservation and transportation of wine far easier. Although Bordeaux was earlier, the first recorded bottling of wine in the Rhone Valley dates back to 1779. Meanwhile, with the aim of raising the overall quality, Louis XV banned the planting of all new vines, a ban that would last until the French Revolution.
It didn’t take much for the European vineyards to almost completely disappeared when, in 1864, an insect, phylloxera, was accidentally imported from America and contaminated and devastated almost every vineyard; they were saved by transplants performed on cuttings of American vines which were thankfully immune to the parasite, and the highest quality wines could again be produced. However, the catastrophe was intense, especially around the vineyards of Paris, which at that time were some of the most significant, and which failed to recover.
In France, the scientist Louis Pasteur took a great deal of interest in wine and vine diseases and significantly improved the processes of preservation and aging. Following this, the early twentieth century saw the creation of the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée, the very first AOC being granted to Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
Even today, Italy and France remain the two principal wine producers and the finest French vintages give France its reputation for excellence.
1- Archaeologists have found evidence and equipment for the production of wine at a 700 sq. metre site in Armenia. They identified a grape crusher and a clay fermentation vat housed in a cave. They also identified grape seeds, remnants of pressed grapes, dried grapevine branches, pottery shards, a cup carved from a horn and a cylindrical bowl used for drinking wine. The crusher, a clay basin of 1 metre square by 15 cm deep, had a channel that allowed the grape juice to flow into the fermentation vat which, with a depth of 60 cm, could contain 52 to 54 litres of wine. This winemaking site was surrounded by dozens of graves, suggesting that wine may have played a ceremonial role. Similar installations were used right up until the 19th century throughout the Mediterranean and the Caucasus.
2 - Greek archaeologists have found two-handled clay cups and pots suggesting the transfer and consumption of liquids. Also in their discovery, carbonised figs were found near the remains of the grapes. This suggests that the figs were possibly used as a sugar additive to cover up the bitterness of the natural grape
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