Noah and the Vine
Mount Ararat: where Noah planted the first domesticated grapevines?
We all know wine has been made for a long, long time - thousands of years, tens of thousands even - its origin difficult to trace. Yet there are efforts to dig up evidence and delve into its past. For instance, DNA profiling of grapes seeks to unravel numerous mysteries, such as establishing where the wild grapevine was first domesticated and how we’ve got the grapes we have today. And explorations involving chemical analyses can date unearthed winemaking objects; they’ve even shown where wine may first have been made as we know it, so far pointing to Georgia, Armenia and Turkey as contenders for the cradle of wine. This is the Noah hypothesis.
The name comes from a story that captures the imagination and has done so since we were singing about animals going in two by two as children - that of Noah, of Flood and Ark fame. In the Bible’s Book of Genesis, once the deluge subsides the Ark rests atop Ararat, and once he is able to leave, the first thing Noah does is plant a vineyard. Naturally he then drinks the wine, gets drunk and falls asleep naked in his tent to be found by his sons the following morning. He then goes on to live for another 350 years, reaching the ripe old age of 950.
60 miles from Ararat, possibly the world’s first winery was discovered in a cave in Areni, Armenia: radiocarbon dating in 2011 established that it goes back 6100 years. It has grape presses in specially constructed floors designed for squishing grapes by stomping to let grape juice run into underground jars. On top of this, drinking cups, storage vessels and grape pips and stalks were also found and, interestingly, a number of burials are in the same place suggesting a ritualistic aspect to winemaking and drinking.
It’s mind blowing to think that this was between the Stone and Bronze Age but, more importantly, it makes you wonder what the wine was like. Perhaps the closest we can get is with Georgian Qvevri wine, wine made in egg-shaped earthenware that is sealed and buried underground for up to 6 months. It’s an ancient method that hasn’t changed, remaining inextricably part of local culture and identity, and it’s even on Unesco’s list of ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’. The wines are somewhat different, especially the whites, since they spend months in contact with the skins, which imparts a deeper golden or orange colour and also tannins, which give texture. And not to forget, they encapsulate a history going back over 6000 years.
