Scientist theorize that the beginning of wine began during the Neolithic period (8500 – 4000 BC). During this time humans began to invent things such as tools to make life easier. Another invention was pottery. A large pottery jug found during an archeological dig was revealed to have contained calcium tartrate, formed from tartaric acid, occurring only in grapes. This jug is believed to have held a large quantity of wine. Even during this ancient time it appears people enjoyed drinking wine.

Of course no one is able to confirm that these people actually harvested and cultivated grapes for the purpose of creating wine. Was the creation an accident? Some scientist state the grapes, when left in the skinned pouches, fermented causing the grapes to turn to wine. If the fermentation was left to continue, the grapes which turned to wine would then turn to vinegar.

Scientists believe that the terebinth trees which grew and were harvested during the same season as grapes inadvertently mixed with the grapes to cause a slow down of the fermentation. These experts also believe the birds were the first to eat the spoiled grapes and therefore the odd behavior they displayed made the Neolithic man curious about the grapes.

The earliest “written” evidence of wine is written in the Old Testament of the Bible. After the flood, Noah planted a vineyard and made wine. Again, we can see that even during these Biblical times wine was greatly appreciated.

If it were not for the Roman contributions in 1000 BC, wine would not have the quality that it has today. The Romans were the first to categorize grapes and study them in order to produce a quality wine. It was the Romans that began to use olive oil as a barrier between the wine and oxygen in the air so that the wine would not turn into vinegar.

Patrick McGovern, author of Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture and a leading researcher on the origins of wine, has shown through chemical analysis and archaeological sleuthing that grapes were used to create wine in the Neolithic period. McGovern is now determined to find the origin of domestication of grapes and is looking in Eastern Turkey since other plants domesticated there. He believes this would assist in his research that wine originated in the Neolithic period.