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The nearby winemaking monks made it into an industry, producing enough wine to ship all over Europe for secular use. Portugal, a country with one of the oldest wine traditions, developed the first wine appellation system in the world. [citation needed] Bordeaux was the only important wine region without close connections to the Church.
The earliest known traces of wine are from Georgia (c. 6000 BCE), [3] [2] Persia (c. 5000 BCE), [8] [9] Armenia (c. 4100 BCE), [10] and Sicily (c. 4000 BCE). [11] Wine reached the Mediterranean Basin in the early Bronze Age and was consumed and celebrated by ancient civilizations like ancient Greece and Rome.
[8] [9] This is approximately the time when barley beer and grape wine were beginning to be made in the Middle East. Evidence of alcoholic beverages has also been found dating from 5400 to 5000 BC in Hajji Firuz Tepe in Iran, [10] 3150 BC in ancient Egypt, [11] 3000 BC in Babylon, [12] 2000 BC in pre-Hispanic Mexico [12] and 1500 BC in Sudan. [13]
As Greek civilization spread through the Mediterranean, wine culture followed. [12] The Ancient Greeks introduced vines such as Vitis vinifera [12] and made wine in their numerous colonies in Italy, [13] Sicily, [14] southern France, [15] and Spain. [12] In 1937, a Wine Institute was established by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Prices rose sharply, making wine unaffordable to all but the most affluent, at a time when wine-drinking habits and demand had percolated down to the less affluent majority. The wine shortage, and the potential for increased profits, led to the hurried planting of new vineyards nearer to Rome and the replanting of existing grain fields with ...
4000 BC: Probable time period of the first diamond-mines in the world, in Southern India. [125] 4000 BC: Paved roads, in and around the Mesopotamian city of Ur, Iraq. [126] 4000 BC: Plumbing. The earliest pipes were made of clay, and are found at the Temple of Bel at Nippur in Babylonia. [127] [b]
The art of distillation was perfected in Europe during the 15th century, and many of today's most common and familiar spirits were invented and perfected before the 18th century. Brandy (from Low German Brandwein via Dutch brandewijn , meaning "distilled wine") first appeared in 15th-century Germany.
The Dutch were avid traders, buying wine from across Europe (particularly the Mediterranean countries) for trade with Hanseatic states, and were eager to capitalize on the potential of the French wine industry. For most of the 16th and 17th century, the Dutch traders would play an intimate role in the fortunes of the French wine industry.