macedonia: wine production that date back more than 6,500 years!

[Dimko-piperkata]

As any vino afficionado will say, do you really need a reason to enjoy a glass (or two) of wine?

Well, we're going to give you one anyway. Yes, friends, today is "Drink Wine Day"!

Courtesy Punchbowl.com: "The list of benefits for drinking wine is getting longer and longer by the minute. A glass of wine a day has been shown to improve heart health, reduce forgetfulness, help you lose weight, boost your immunity and help prevent bone loss.

Wine has been produced for thousands of years all around the world. It's no wonder why the art of making wine has been perfected over the years. Archaeological sites in Macedonia uncovered evidence of early Europeon wine production that date back more than 6,500 years! In China, traces of crushed grapes were found that are believed to be from the second and first millennium BC."

The article goes on to note wine's popularity in the over 20 million acres in the world dedicated to growing grapes for the sole purpose of making wine. That's a lot of land.

Would you be surprised to know many acres dedicated to wine grapes are right here in New Jersey? If you had read our "Day Tripper" piece on the New Jersey wine country, you wouldn't be.

But, if you're eager to observe this very important holiday as soon as possible, there are plenty of places to pick up a bottle right here in Chatham, including Cottage Deli Grocery & Liquors, Bottle King, Chatham Wine Shop, Chatham Wine and Liquor and Hickory Wine Cellar.

And, if you're not much of a wine drinker, we told you in our Five Things You Need To Know Today column that today is also the anniversary of the discovery of the (now demoted) planet Pluto. Punchbowl.com notes today also is "National Battery Day," which I guess is just as cool.

http://chatham.patch.com/articles/need-a-reason-today-is-drink-wine-day-6

[Moon Tiki]

This site is in Drama district, close to the ancient city of Philippi.

March 16, 2007 — Either the ancient Greeks loved grape juice, or they were making wine nearly 6,500 years ago, according to a new study that describes what could be the world’s earliest evidence of crushed grapes.
If the charred 2,460 grape seeds and 300 empty grape skins were used to make wine, as the researchers suspect, the remains might have belonged to the second oldest known grape wine in the world, edged out only by a residue-covered Iranian wine jug dating to the sixth millennium B.C.
Since the Greeks influenced the Romans, who in turn influenced virtually all of Europe, it is possible that a drink made in a humble, post-framed house in eastern Macedonia influenced much of the world’s wine.
"For the Neolithic or the Bronze Age, we have no evidence for markets and a market economy," lead author Tania Valamoti told Discovery News. Valamoti conducted the research with colleagues Chaido Koukouli-Chrysanthaki and Dimitra Malamidou. .
"Production was on a household or communal basis," added Valamoti, who is a lecturer in the Department of Archaeology at Greece’s Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Valamoti and her team excavated four homes at a Neolithic site called Dikili Tash. After discovering the grape remains in one residence, they studied charring experiments performed by Maria Mangafaon on fresh grapes, raisins and wine pressings to see what would best match the ancient pips and skins.
They determined the archaeological remains "morphologically resemble wine pressings and could not have originated from charred grapes or raisins."
Analysis of the grape remains determined they either were harvested from wild plants or originated from a very early cultivar.
Findings are published in the current journal Antiquity.

The scientists also found two-handled clay cups and jars, which they say suggest a use for decanting and consuming liquids. Charred figs were also found near the grape remnants. The presence of figs likely was not a coincidence, according to the researchers, who mentioned that juice from wild grapes often has a bitter taste.
"Figs could have been added to the grape juice prior to fermentation and the sugars contained in them would have entered the juice," explained Valamoti. "Or, they could have been added to the fermented product after completion of the fermentation process. Honey could be dealt with in the same way."
The world’s oldest wine, a 9,000-year old rice wine from China, also contained honey and fruits.
The ancient Greek grapes might change wine history, as experts previously theorized grape wine-making could have first spread throughout the Middle East.
Patrick McGovern, a senior research scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, and one of the world’s leading ancient wine experts, has pointed out that "the wild grape never grew in ancient Egypt," yet evidence for wine there dates back to at least 2,700 B.C. Red wine residue was even found in King Tut’s tomb.
He and his colleagues believe wine-making became established in Egypt due to "early Bronze Age trade between Egypt and Palestine, encompassing modern Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and Jordan."
But since the Phoenicians and the Greeks largely controlled Egyptian trade during much of the Pharaonic period, because many such individuals had settled into the Delta, it is now possible that Greeks brought wine into Egypt and into numerous other places, through Greece’s extensive trade routes.
Valamoti and her colleagues hope further studies can be conducted on the Dikili Tash pottery, to determine whether tartaric acid, a component of grapes and wine, was present in the cups.

[Dimko-piperkata]

the hellenes setteled to the macedonian area at around the 6-7 cent. b.c.

your contribution is nonsens.

[Soldier of Macedon]

Either the ancient Greeks loved grape juice, or they were making wine nearly 6,500 years ago, according to a new study that describes what could be the world’s earliest evidence of crushed grapes.

What sort of garbage is this? Ancient Greeks were yet to be in existence during this period, and, as Dimko highlighted, their colonies weren't established on the Macedonian coast until thousands of years later.