There is a very interesting article in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 101,
17593(2004) that shows very good evidence that wine probably was made about 9000 years ago. There is a brief article concerning this and other evidence on pp 32-33 of the Jan 3 issue of Chemical and Engineerng News, the news journal of the American Chemical Society. These journals should be available at very large city libraries and at most universities that do research in science and engineering.Chemical analysis of 9000 year old pottery fragments found at the Neolithic village of Jiahu in northern China support the suggestion that the jars they came from contained a fermented mixture of rice, fruit(grape or hawthorn fruit) and honey. The analysis showed evidence of beeswax whch indicated that honey probably was used. There also is evidence that rice was used. Compounds associated with modern wines were looked for, especially tartaric acid, which was found. Both grape and hawthorn fruit seeds have been found at the Jiahu site. Hawthorn fruit contains about 4 times as much tartaric acid as grapes. Thus the fruit used in the brew could have been grapes, hawthorn fruit, or a mixture of both.
Also studied was liquid that was still present in tightly lidded 3000 year old bronze containers from the ancient city of Anyang in China. This site was dated at about 1250-1000 BC. At the site, 52 of 90 brass containers still contained liquid. It is thought that oxidation of copper around the lid produced a perfect seal and thus retained the liquid. These liquids were different from the evidence at the much older site. No beeswax was detected, indicating that honey was not used. Also there were only traces of tartaric acid, indicatig that grapes and hawthorne fruit probably were not used. It is thoght these drinks were produced by the use of molds to break down the carbohydrates of rice into simple sugars, an ancient Chinese method that is called amylolysis fermentation.
Although itis not certain, the evidence suggests that fermented beverages were develoed independently in China and the Middle East.
There were no tasting notes for the liquid in the sealed bronze containers. Likely it was somewhat toxic after being in contact with bronze for so long. I suspect the tasting note miight have said "brassy" if the brew had been tasted.
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