Morrison - Wine Making: The Complete Guide To Making Organic Wine at Home Includes 23 Homemade Wine Recipes

The glass of wine you sip on at dinner, over a delicious dessert with friends, or toast with during a black tie affair has roots dating all the way back to Mesopotamia. Ancient cultures were fermenting fruits for as long as agriculture has been a part of human history.

Ancient Egyptian pharaohs were buried with bottles of aged wine, and the ancient Greeks used imbibed during their symposiums.

But it was the Romans who brought wine into the public sphere, opening up bars in every major city and port, and exporting their wine across the empire.

Before wine became a social lubricant, and long before winemaking became a hobby, the drinking of wine was mostly reserved for religious and ceremonial purposes. The Egyptians believed the red color of wine resembled blood and held within it metaphysical properties for the gods.

It was most often used in burial rituals as an offering before sealing away the deceased in their tomb. Of course, its religious purposes did not deter the royal and upper classes from imbibing on the alcoholic treat.

Wine was used in celebrations, and with this in mind, the Egyptians buried their dead with wine in hopes that they would continue entertaining guests in the afterlife.

The Greeks took on this mentality and used wine as a part of their social symposiums. While they discussed philosophy, mathematics, and history (among many other subjects), the drinking of wine was believed to open up the mind intellectually as well as spiritually.

For the Greek religion also celebrated wine. Dionysus, the god of wine, was noted as the inspiration for philosophers and artists alike, and he was commemorated at nearly every symposium as well as during specific months out of the year.

During the Mycenean Period in Greece (1600-1100B.C.), winemaking was perfected as different cities created different flavors and varieties based on their local climates.

The diversity of tastes and colors were in high demand, and the Greeks traded their wines across the ancient world.

They taught their colonies in Italy how to make wine, and took advantage of the Italian countrysides ability to grow grapes. Later, Alexander the Great would take Greek winemaking as far as Asia.

Unfortunately, during this time, both the making and consumption of wine was limited to the upper-classes who had both the money and the time to devote to such entertainments.

It was not until the Roman Empire took what the Greeks had taught them and shared it with the public masses that wine and winemaking took off as a popular past time. There were wine bars on every street in every city in the empire.

Winemaking had become so prevalent that the Emperor Domitan had to legally ban the building of more vineyards in order to make room for wheat fields during the 2 nd century.

But by this time, every empire in the known world was fermenting their own, local fruits for delectable wines which they were trading with palates all over the globe.

These ancient vinos would make wine by treading fruit with their feet, stomping out the juice and letting it drain into a large stone basin beneath them.

The juice squeezed out by feet was considered more potent and medicinal than the juice yielded by pressing, so stomping was always the first step followed by 2-3 more pressings by stone.

These juices would then be stored in large, earthenware jars and buried in the dirt beneath houses and barns to stay cool during the month of fermentation.

After 30 days, the liquid would be transferred to jars for storage, with chalk or marble dust sometimes being added to sweeten the flavor.

Holes would be drilled in the top of these jars in order to allow the carbon dioxide to escape, which is imperative to preventing the oxidation and spoiling of wine.

Today, you do not have to use your feet in the modern winemaking process (unless you want to). But many of the techniques and equipment used are directly inspired by our ancestors.

Even the ancients knew that winemaking was a process that required a lot of unique tools and even more patience.

The amount of time it takes to ferment your own wine can range anywhere between 3 months to 3 years, and the equipment you choose to use will determine the flavor and color of your unique bottle of wine.