It has long been claimed that the earliest ‘wine culture’ in the world emerged in the mountainous regions of Transcaucasia – modern Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan – during the Neolithic period (8500-4000 BC). The wild Eurasian grape subspecies (Vitis vinifera sylvestris) still thrives at higher elevations in this region. Vitis vinifera sylvestris are still growing in high mountainous areas of the region that are distinguished by well-dried limestone, iron rich red soil and medium sediments. In the above mentioned mountain regions, the Vitis vinifera has a significant genetic variation, which indicates the emergence of plants at the "world center" and where it is most likely that the plant domestication began.
Neolithic communities had been established in Transcaucasia at least by 6000 BC and also by that time, for the first time in human history, the essential preconditions for domestication of the grapevine and development of wine-making (e.g. pottery-making) had emerged. The Viticulture that had been conceived in Transcaucasia, started to spread out to other parts of the Near East and eventually to Europe and the New World. This contention is supported by the proto-Indo-European root meaning ‘wine’, from which the modern Indo-European, Semitic and Slavic words are all derived, and which is believed to have had its origin in the Caucasus.
It has long been claimed that the earliest ‘wine culture’ in the world emerged in the mountainous regions of Transcaucasia – modern Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan – during the Neolithic period (8500-4000 BC). The earliest Neolithic evidence for the beginning of a true wine culture, in which wine dominated social and economic life, comes from Georgia. In Shulaveri, south of Tbilisi, the oldest domesticated grape pips (Vitis vinifera sativa), dating from the early sixth millennium BC, were found. The domesticated vine’s main advantage over the wild type is that it is self-pollinating, and thus able to produce a large and predictable fruit crop. Besides selecting plants that yielded larger, juicer, and tastier fruit with fewer seeds, the early Neolithic horticulturist also discovered how to ‘clone’ a desirable grape-vine by rooting and grafting branches.
The invention of pottery during the Neolithic period was crucial for processing, serving, and storing wine. Again, sixth-millennium BC sites in Georgia – Shulaveri and Khramis Didi-Gora – have yielded the earliest, most important evidence. Jars with reddish residues on their interiors (wine ‘lees’) were decorated with exterior appliqués that appear to be grape cluster and jubilant stick-figures, with arms raised high, under grape arbors.
The importance of viticulture in Georgian life seems to have intensified in later periods, finding new forms of cultural expression. For example, impressive and unique artifacts characterize the so-called ‘Trialeti culture’ of the early second millennium BC. Large burial mounds (kurgans) at Trialeti itself, west of modern Tbilisi, and other sites of the period have yielded marvelously ornate gold and silver goblets often depicting drinking rituals and scenes. Grapevine cutting were often encased in silver, accentuating the intricate nodal pattern of the plant. The latter specimens, with their nearly 4000-year-old wood still intact, are on display, together with several Trialeti goblets, in the ‘Gold Treasury” hall of the Georgian State Museum.
In some parts of Georgia today, especially in the regions of Kakheti and on the territories adjacent to the river Rioni, wine is still made in the traditional way by being fermented, sometimes for several years, in large jars (Qvevri) buried up to their necks underground or in artificially created hillocks (marani) containing a number if jars (Qvevris). While the earliest instance of this tradition can be traced back to the Iron Age BC, numerous maranis of the Roman and Byzantine periods have also been found. Wine production continued after the country’s conversion to Christianity and throughout medieval times, which was partly assured by the inclusion of wine in the Eucharist. Today, any visitor to Georgia will attest that wine has become an indivisible part of everyday life: it is drunk at the table, which, as a rule is led by a host, assuming the role of toastmaster (tamada).
Long-standing traditions of cultivating the grapevine have contributed to the emergence of versatile modern red and white grapevine varieties, with such exotic names as Saperavi and Rkatsiteli, whose origins can be traced back to the Neolithic period. Professor Revaz Ramishvili, the head of the Institute of the Viticulture and Oenology of the Georgian Agricultural University, identified the grape seeds at Shulaveri. Both he and his father are pioneers in the botanical study of the Eurasian grape. An intermediate type between the wild and domesticated varieties, first identified by and named after the senior Ramishvili, attests to Georgia’s crucial role in domesticating the plant.
The DNA analysis of grapes of Eurasian varieties grown in Georgia has established that some Georgian varieties, such as ‘Maglari Tvrina’ and ‘Otskhanuri Sapere’ are quite close to several Western European varieties, including Pinor Noir, Syrah and Nebbiolo. These conclusions allow us to assume that the plant has been cultivated for the first time in the mountainous regions of the Near East (the eastern Taurus, and the northwestern Zagros and the Caucasus mountains). The above mentioned can be extended to Georgia too. It is necessary to continue research, namely to compare varieties of other regions with modern varieties of vines whose samples have not yet been studied (particularly in the north and west regions of Azerbaijan and Iran).
During the last visit to Georgia in September-October 2008, under the patronage of the Director of the Georgian National Museum - David Lortkipanidze and the Department of Antiquities, I managed to collect important samples of Trialeti grapevine canes covered with silver. Now we have a good possibility to carry out the final DNA study of the latter along with Shulaveri seeds, as methods of extraction and analysis are being improved.
Samples of Early Neolithic pottery have been selected and analyzed from the yields of current archaeological dig sites in Gadachrili Gora dating back to 6000-700 years BC. Because they have not been processed with concentrated hydrochloric acid, it is necessary to introduce more complete results of chemical research than we have done with the samples already tested from Shulaveri and Khramis Didi Gora. The preliminary results of studies already indicate the presence of tartaric acid as a bio-marker for Vitis vinifera wine inside the Neolithic jugs found in the Middle East. If this is substantiated by advanced chemical technologies (namely, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry), Georgia’s impact on human civilization will have been very significant and far-reaching. Thus, Georgia can freely be called the "cradle of wine".
The University of Pennsylvania Museum
