Have you ever wondered how our primitive ancestors discovered wine? Meaning, how they discovered fermentation (and the giddy delights that follow) and learned to control it? We did. Back in 2002, we commissioned an article on the subject from Dr. Lee Rogers Berger,  currently Leader of the Palaeothropology Research Group at the University of the Witwatersand in South Africa.

I re-read the article after seeing a story in The New York Times last week about an archeological dig in Armenia; among its many discoveries were artifacts of what was claimed to be the oldest winemaking operation yet unearthed. The site contained “a vat for fermenting, a press, storage jars, a clay bowl and a drinking cup made from an animal horn. Grape seeds, dried pressed grapes, stems, shriveled grapevines and residue were also found, and chemical analyses indicate red wine was produced there.”

Archeologists are estimating that the operation is about 6,100 years old. Is it the oldest? A site in Iran dates its winemaking artifacts to 7,000 years ago. But let’s not quibble. Let’s instead take a step back:

Scientists estimate that stone tools were invented around 2.5 million years ago; controlled use of fire and migrations out of Africa, 1.5 million years ago; figurative art, burial of the dead and other signs of spirituality, 125,000 years ago; and 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, a widespread change from hunter-gatherer to a more stable, sedentary way of living: domesticating animals and crops, establishment of villages. The first steps toward civilization.

Humans were certainly aware of the intoxicating effects of fermented fruits, and perhaps grains, for many thousands of years prior to this transformative era. Which leads me to the question I posed at the top. How did they first discover fermentation?

Dr. Berger points out that certain fruits contain yeasts—essential to fermentation—on their skins. He cites marula, a fruit common to Africa at the time, as being a prime example. When fruit drops off the tree and is allowed to decay under certain conditions, ethyl alcohol is produced. Perhaps early men and women observed animals eating this fruit and noted the effect, or they tried the rotting fruit themselves in times of want and got a very pleasant side effect. Either way, it was noted, harnessed, institutionalized. Humans can be ingenious that way.

Fermentation from grain is more involved, since yeasts are not naturally present. They need to be added. Dr. Berger theorizes that our ancestors may have introduced yeasts by spitting into their grain. (Chicha, a fermented beverage in South America, is still occasionally made this way.) How they discovered that enzymes that convert the grain’s starch into sugar, which convert to alcohol, are contained in human saliva: that’s where my curiosity ends. Cheers!

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