On the history of wine

According to archaeological research, the history of wine has been 6000 years. It is reported that 20 years ago in Gedentebi, Iran, the Persian binaural fine-necked wine jar in 3500 BC was discovered. Recently, it was found that wine contains natural chemicals such as tannin and tartaric acid by analyzing the composition of red spots on the wall of the pool. It shows that humans began to drink wine 5500 years ago.

Wine is the product of natural fermentation. Today, many wine producers still use natural fermentation technology to produce wine, that is, after the grapes are broken, no strains are added, so that wild yeast can naturally propagate and ferment into wine. In fact, this process has already existed in nature. As we all know, wild grapes and wild yeast in nature existed before human society. The Book of Clearance records an interesting discovery of a traveler: "There are many mountain apes in Pinglefu, and they are good at picking flowers and making wine. When the woodcutter enters the mountain, he gets his nest. The wine is like a stone, and the fragrance of drinking is abnormal, so it is called ape wine. " It can be inferred that primitive people picked wild flowers and fruits to satisfy their hunger and thirst. Mature wild grapes, with delicious juice, sweet and sour, must be one of the wild fruits picked by primitive people. Store excess wild grapes in caves and containers, and the grapes will flow under their own pressure. The ubiquitous wild yeast will ferment gravity grape juice into wine. This process began in the era of apes, before the appearance of primitive people. There have been records of wine in human history, but no one can tell when the wine in prehistoric times began.

Ancient Persia, now Iran, is one of the cradles of ancient civilization. Most historians believe that Persia may be the first country to brew wine in the world. Legend has it that in ancient times there was a Persian king who loved grapes. He put them tightly in a big clay pot and marked them "poisonous" to prevent people from stealing them. A few days later, one of the royal wives and concubines got tired of life, so she drank the drink in the pottery jar marked "toxic" without authorization. Strangely, this drink tastes very good. Instead of ending her life, which is very exciting. From then on, the princess was full of confidence in life. She specially held a cup for the king, who liked it very much after drinking it. After that, the king ordered the ripe grapes to be collected, compacted in containers and fermented into wine. Persia is separated from the Caspian Sea and faces the Caucasus, both of which are the origin of wine. Ancient Egypt is also one of the four ancient civilizations in the world. A large number of relics found today prove that Egyptians began to drink wine before 3000 BC. In the murals of Egyptian pyramids, there are patterns depicting the process of picking grapes and making wine.

With the wars and commercial activities in ancient times, the methods of brewing wine spread all over Israel, Syria, Asia Minor and other Arab countries. Because Arab countries believe in Islam, and Islam advocates the prohibition of alcohol, the wine-making industry in Arab countries is declining and is now almost banned. Later, wine-making methods spread from Persia and Egypt to Greece, Rome and Gaul (today's France). Later, it spread to European countries. Because Europeans believe in Christianity, Christians call bread and wine "quot"-"my flesh, my blood" and regard wine as an indispensable drink in life, so wine has gradually developed in European countries and formed a large scale. /kloc-After 0/7th century, it is still the most important grape and wine producing area in the world, and it is also the country that consumes the most wine per capita in the world today.

There are more than 20 kinds of wild grapes in China, also called wild grapes. Wild grapes are widely distributed in China from northeast to northwest and from south to north. Cultivated grape has existed in China since ancient times. During the Zhou Dynasty, there were cultivated grapes and vineyards. It is recorded in the "Local Official Seal" of Zhou Li that grapes are classified as rare fruits. In ancient China, the western regions (now Xinjiang) were rich in grapes and wine. According to Records of the Historian and Hanshu, "grapes are used as wine in Dawan, and rich people keep wine above mangoku, and those who stay for a long time are unbeaten for decades." This shows the scale and technical level of brewing at that time.

During the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Zhang Qian to the Western Regions to introduce grape and wine-making technology from the Western Regions to the Central Plains, which promoted the development of grape planting and wine-making technology in the Central Plains. Wine has become a treasure enjoyed by the royal family and dignitaries at that time. According to legend, there was a rich man named Meng Tuo in Fufeng, Shaanxi Province in the Han Dynasty, who bribed the eunuch with a bottle of wine and was immediately appointed as the secretariat of Liangzhou. Later, Su Shi said with emotion: "The general didn't wait for a hundred battles, and Liang Bo had won Liangzhou."

The Tang Dynasty was a glorious period in the history of wine-making in China, and wine-making moved from the palace to the folk. In Li Bai's poems, the words "wine, gold and Luo Yi, Wu Ji's fifteen fine horses, ……" not only show that wine has spread to the people, but also show that wine is precious. Like gold, it can be used as a dowry for girls to get married.

In the Yuan Dynasty, a large number of alcoholic products were sold in the market. Kyle Poirot recorded in the book Travel Notes of China that there are many good vineyards in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, which produce a lot of wine and sell it all over the world. Therefore, there has long been such a poem in Shanxi: "I said that I am from A Jin. I planted this kind of jade and made it into fine wine, which is not enough to drink." It shows that the local people regard growing grapes and making wine as a very proud thing.

In Ming Dynasty, Li Shizhen mentioned the brewing method and medicinal value of wine in many places in Compendium of Materia Medica, saying that "wine ... is sensitive to color and cold-resistant". In other words, wine can strengthen the body, beauty beauty.

Although wine in China has a long history of more than 2,000 years, grape and wine production has always been a sideline in rural areas, and the output is not large, which has not been paid enough attention. It was not until 1892 that Zhang Bitu, an overseas Chinese, planted grapes in Yantai and established Changyu Grape Brewing Company that the first modern new wine production enterprise appeared in China.

After the liberation of the whole country, with the care of previous party and state leaders, the wine industry in China has developed by leaps and bounds. Especially since the reform and opening-up, China's wine industry is bathing in the spring breeze and going to the world.