Evidence of ancient wine found in Georgia a vintage quaffed some 6,000 years BC

Posted By : Georgian Tour/ 726

Archaeologists are hard at work sifting through the dirt at a dig in Imiri, south-eastern Georgia.

The scientists believe that the site contains artefacts that could once and for all prove that Georgia is the oldest wine producing country in the world.

Eight thousand years ago, during the neolithic era, farming and agriculture were flourishing in the three villages that now make up the Shulaveri – Shumitepe Cultural ruins in Marneuli Valley.

And one of the products being grown and harvested proved to be grapes to make wine.

Stephen Batiuk is from the University of Toronto: “What is significant about this site is that it produced some of the earliest examples of domesticated grapes, which we believe were involved in the earliest production of wine. We know that a wine vessel was discovered in Shulaveri, which also provides evidence of early wine production. But here (Imiri site) wine could be produced even earlier taking wine production in Georgia all the way back to 6,000 BC.”

David Lordkipanidze, is director of Georgia’s National Museum:
“The aim of this project is to look at the history of agriculture. It’s not just only the question of the earliest wine and we have found here traces of very old wine making, but as well to look at the domestication of the weeds, of the different agricultural products, which shows that Caucasus and Georgia were part of this big geographical territory, the so called Fertile Crescent, where the earliest agriculture was appearing and first civilisations were spreading.”

The Fertile Crescent is a swathe of land stretching from upper Egypt to Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq, Kuwait and northeast Syria.

 

Source: Euronews.com

2018 grape harvest kicks off in Georgia

Posted By : Georgian Tour/ 987

The 2018 grape harvest is in full swing in Georgia’s wine region of Kakheti. Harvest in Georgia lasts from middle of September till middle of October.

This will be the first grape harvest in the last 10 years that has not been subsidised by the state.

Diversified markets, increased wine exports and the number of enterprises on the market gives firm reasons to believe that the grape harvest will be successful and organised, Georgian Minister of Agriculture Levan Davitashvili says.

A special grape harvest coordination centre opened in Kakheti on August 20.

So far 80 companies have registered in the centre that are ready to get involved in the grape harvest process.

Of these companies 23 wine companies are already involved in the harvest.

About 5,000 tonnes of grapes are predicted to be processed during this harvest.

Here is the tour for Rtveli in Georgia: