Why is there something rather than nothing? Why are you yourself and not someone else? Where do babies come from? Such good questions! Thanks to all of you who send these, and many like them, to the Wine Corner mailroom every week. They’re potent reminders that from time to time it’s imperative to turn our attention to questions of fundamental — even existential — consequence. Such as . . .
What is wine, anyway? Wine is nothing more than the naturally fermented juice of fruit. It just so happens that only grapes develop sugars in sufficient levels to make a stable beverage. In other words, a drink that can, under the right circumstances, remain in sound, drinkable condition for lengthy periods of time, grow more interesting and pleasing with age, and receive a big score from a wine writer. Today, wine commonly means grape wine.
What made wine as we know it possible? (a) The invention of water-tight, ceramic pottery and (b) the 100 point wine rating scale.
How old is wine? We can be certain from the analysis of residues found in terra cotta vessels that grape wine was being made in the Caucasus region in the sixth millennium BCE. Evidence of wine made with sources other than, or in addition to, grapes has been found in China from an even earlier era. The first wine and the first wine writers are thought to have emerged with near simultaneity.
Which came first, beer or wine? Grape sugars become immediately available to wild yeasts the moment the skin of a berry is broken (fallen from a vine; pecked by a bird; crushed by a foot). Contrarily, the starches in grain must be converted to sugars by human agency (a process known as mashing) before yeasts can roll up their tiny sleeves and get down to work. This strongly suggests that wine must have antedated beer by a hominid era or two. This is also the likely reason beer writers were so late to the game.
What is the earliest known toast? According to the Bible, it is “Here’s to some special you and me time, Evie.”*
Why should one drink wine? Goethe said it best: “Wine rejoices the heart of man, and joy is the mother of all virtues.”
— Stephen Meuse
*Genesis. 2:25, variant reading