The history of grapes, which is as old as the history of humanity and the subject of mythologies, dates back 9 thousand years. Agricultural activities that started with the Neolithic period; It continued with the domestication of cereals, legumes, and later the grape vine. According to research, the grape was domesticated between the Northwest Zagros Mountains and Transcaucasia.
Grapes have become an important part of daily life in the Mediterranean, and there was wine made from grapes on almost every table. It has been the subject of mythology and philosophy, all of which has made the grape one of the three main products that create culture in the Mediterranean.
Ancient Winemaking
Although the first Hittite civilization comes to mind in Anatolia when Viticulture and Wine is mentioned, amphorae used to store olive oil and wine were also found in the ancient city of Klazomenai, which is famous for its olive oil production. It is possible to come across olive oil and wine produced as a result of olive and grape cultivation, which are indispensable parts of Mediterranean culture, all over the Mediterranean. The ancient Greeks took the grape beyond being an agricultural product and wine beyond being a beverage, so much so that there are wine gods named Dionysus.
Winemaking in Antiquity
In ancient times, people crushed grapes with their feet to make wine, and then extracted the juice with press machines. The running water was left to ferment in the containers where the wines were stored. While the grape juices that flowed first were of better quality, the quality of the ones obtained from the later pastes was lower. These were either second-rate wines or sold as vinegar. The sugar in the grape juice turns into alcohol and carbon dioxide during the fermentation phase, and the amount of sugar determines the amount of alcohol in the wine. The wines, whose fermentation process was over, were filtered into amphorae covered with resin with the help of a thin cloth. Finally, the wine was kept in these amphoras for several weeks without exposure to heat and light.
