It is said that wine improves with age. And it is that the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki has found prehistoric remains of this drink Greece. Neither more nor less, it is estimated that they date from the year 4.300 BC. So imagine having the privilege of being able to taste the oldest wine in Europe. But it can? We tell you everything that is known about these remains here.
Has the oldest wine in Europe been found?
The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki has immersed itself in research to find out how people lived in past ages. For this they have been located in archaeological zones of the northern greece and its surroundings. One of the study participants is Professor Valamoti Soultana-Maria. This has ensured that the results "provide a large amount of information on the social and economic organization in northern Greece, the daily activities of the people and their agricultural practices”.
However, of all the discoveries, one stands out in particular. And it is that, evidences of consumption of the oldest wine in Europe. Exactly in Philippi, northwest of Greece. However, very sadly, we cannot say that what was found was ready-to-drink wine. I mean we cannot taste this prehistoric wine. Well, a lost amphora with many years of aging was not found. The discovery was a set of grape seeds y pomace. Found as perfectly preserved remains of a fire dated around 4.300 BC.
The seeds were rescued, first, thanks to the archaeological flotation technique. It is the one in which a mound of earth is collected and, through a tool that works as a strainer, it is separates from possible organic remains who are called floatation. In this way, the deposit dissolves in water. Getting the fragments that are preserved to float to the top. All these organic materials have been archaeobotanically analyzed by Soultana-Maria processing what he has claimed to be "thousands of liters of soil".
What gives us to know the consumption of wine
Although it is not known exactly how these grapes were obtained, if they were cultivated or foraged, its existence gives us a lot of information. To begin with, we already know that wine was consumed. We even know that the Greek society of the early Bronze Age already had this drink and included it in his diet. Also, we know that it was of great importance. It was the favorite drink of academic experts, who held banquets in which the protagonist was wine.
In this manner it was possible to create a large export market in which the wine industry was strengthened. In addition, the possibility has been put on the table that Greece knew wine before beer, with a difference of about a thousand years. Well, traces of Georgian winemaking have been found. In other words, a viticulture technique from the Near East predates the Greek by about two millennia. There is also the possibility that it is simply a case of convergent development.
The wine, better with the years?
Don't worry about not being able to enjoy this ancient wine. It is not always true the phrase that wine is better with age. Well, be careful with the oldest wine that you have stored in the cellar, it may be that when you open it it does not smell or taste as you would like. You must bear in mind that the duration of a wine depends on the amount of tannin. That is, a component present in the skins of the grapes that is responsible for providing acidity and aging quality. In this way, if this element is not of good quality, it may be that instead of improving over the years our wine gets worse.
Carrying out this study can provide us with a lot of information on wine in the past. Nevertheless, the lack of writing leaves us a large blank space that can only be filled with the available evidence. However, much progress has been made in this field thanks to this research. And you? What would you like to know about this drink?
