When Was Wine First Made?

Wine is the fermented juice of grapes. It has been enjoyed by man for thousands of years.

The first people to make wine were probably Persian farmers living near the Caspian Sea. The Egyptians learned how to make wine from them as long ago as 3000 B.C. Pictures on the walls of tombs in the pyramids show people making wine.

Wine was common in the everyday life of the early Greeks and Romans. It was important to their religious ceremonies. The god of wine was called Bacchus by the Romans and Dionysus by the Greeks.

In the fourth century B.C., the Greek conqueror Alexander the Great carried grapevines and the knowledge of wine-making to Central Asia. The Greeks also took vines to southern France. Roman invaders probably took vines to northern France and Germany in later centuries.

Wine was used ceremonially in many ancient religions. And it is used today in many Christian and Jewish religious ceremonies. In times when pure water was scarce, wine was considered safe to drink and a healthy alternative.

There are many different types of wine, as wine can be made from many fruits and plants that contain natural sugar. But most wine is made from grapes. When we say "wine", without using a descriptive name, such as "peach wine" or "blackberry wine", it always means grape wine.

There are more than eight thousand varieties of grapes that can be used to make wine.