Thanks for your comments. They are extremely important. I believe that many people are hopeful that we will have more wines made by black Americans in the future.

Thanks for writing this very important article. I represent Vision Cellars in LA, and just founded a wine meetup group called Wine Noir, devoted to tasting wines made by African-Americans. Believe it or not, in a city as ethnically diverse as ours, except for the Brown family, there is not one bottle of wine made by a black American on any retail shelf. Pitiful!

Roberta Rinaldi

You are correct in pointing out that China made wine earlier than Central Europe. However, I believe the science shows the Chinese wine was not made from grapes. However, I did visit the Xinjiang province in China 2 years ago and they started making wine from grapes in 300 B.C. Residue in Georgia confirms wine made from grapes in 6000 B.C.

From the Los Angeles Times “Main News” Section
(Saturday, December 11, 2004, Page A28):

“Hints of 9,000-Year-Old Wine is Unearthed in China”

[Link: http://articles.latimes.com/2004/dec/11/science/sci-wine11%5D

From Reuters News Service

Neolithic people in China may have been the first in the world to make wine, according to scientists who have found the earliest evidence of winemaking from pottery shards dating from 7000 BC in northern China.

Previously, the oldest evidence of fermented beverages dated from 5400 BC and was found at the Neolithic site of Hajji Firuz Tepe in Iran.

But in a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Patrick McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania said laboratory tests on pottery jars from the village of Jiahu in Henan province had shown traces of a mixed fermented drink of rice, honey and either grapes or hawthorn fruit.

“This evidence appears to suggest that the Chinese developed fermented beverages even earlier than the Middle East, or perhaps at the same time,” McGovern told Reuters. “Maybe there were some indirect ties between the Middle East and Central Asia at that time in ancient civilization.”

McGovern, a molecular archeologist at the university’s Museum of Archaelogy and Anthropology, also analyzed samples of 3,000-year-old wine from hermetically sealed bronze vessels found in Shang Dynasty burial tombs from the Yellow River Basin.

The liquid was preserved because a thin layer of rust had sealed the bronze jars, he said.

A small sample of the remains of the wine, a clear colorless liquid, gave off a faint aroma similar to nail polish remover or varnish. McGovern said when he first smelled the wine it was floral scented.

One of the ancient jars contained a liquid that had traces of wormwood, suggesting the beverage might have been an early version of absinthe.

Thank you for your interesting article. I would like to remind to readers that there is also one legend about Prophet Noah and wine which it is
“Prophet Noah and Wine
Noah started living at the skirts of Mount Ararat(Nowadays, is known as Ağrı Mountain in Eastern Turkey) after the Great Flood. One day he realized that his goats were turning back very merry from grazing. He follows the animals and takes out the plant they eat from the soil. He plants it somewhere near the ship to tend the plant. Seeing Noah so happy makes the Satan jealous and he immediately makes the plant dry. Noah gets very sad and sick upon this. Satan feels for him and decides to do something. He tells Noah that the seed of the plant should be cut open and blood of seven animals should be poured on it. Noah immediately does as he is told and sacrifices a lion, tiger, magpie, rooster, dog, fox and a bear. After a year the plant revives again.” (this article was taken from http://eng.lawines.com.tr/WineCulture/TheHistoryofWine.aspx)

Thanks in advance..

Love and best wishes
Dave