Posted on 12/06/2004 5:20:45 PM PST by blam
China was drinking wine 9,000 years ago
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 07/12/2004)
A mixed fermented wine of rice, honey and fruit was being drunk in northern China 9,000 years ago, more than a thousand years before the previously oldest known fermented drinks, brewed in the Middle East.
In the past scientists relied on the stylistic similarities of early pottery and bronze vessels to argue for the existence of a prehistoric fermented beverage in China.
Today's findings provide the first direct chemical evidence from ancient China for such beverages, which were of cultural, religious, and medical significance.
Dr Patrick McGovern, of the Applied Science Centre for Archaeology, University of Pennsylvania Museum, and colleagues in America and China focused on finds in the Neolithic village of Jiahu, in Henan Province.
The team found and analysed chemical traces left by the fermented drinks on pottery shards.
Through a variety of chemical methods, certain compounds were identified, including those for hawthorn fruit, wild grape, beeswax associated with honey and rice.
Dr McGovern, an archaeochemist, said: "As far as what the early Neolithic might have tasted like, I think that the fruit, whether grape and/or hawthorn fruit would have predominated."
Liquids more than 3,000 years old, remarkably preserved inside bronze vessels, were also analysed. The vessels were hermetically sealed when their lids corroded.
These vessels, from the capital city of Anyang and an elite burial in the Changzikou Tomb in Yellow River Basin, were found to contain rice and millet "wines".
The beverages were flavoured with herbs, flowers and tree resins, and are similar to herbal wines described in Shang dynasty oracle inscriptions, the team reports in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Hmmmm. Somehow I never had a desire to try Chinese wine.
That explains so much about their alphabet.....
I did not know that, ice cream was invented in Italy?
You know, I have never seen Chinese Wines in the Wine stores.
Odds are the fruits were added for purposes of flavor, but the rice was an absolute necessity since the fruits of that time would have had little sugar content.
A few thousand more years of selective breeding was needed to develop high sugar content grapes and apples.
I am happy to report that I'm drinking a Merlot right now
;-)
I have never looked for Chinese wines in wine stores... :-) Somehow it would sound bizarre to offer to your guests: "Would you like a glass of Chinese wine?". Maybe I should offer this to very close friends and see what the reaction will be :-) Boy, I don’t know what I would say if I were offered a glass of it.
Oh yes, it's true.
The world is strange. :^)
Guess I've been reading too many back labels. There was a great old James Thurber cartoon where the host tells his dinner guests he is offering "a naive domestic burgundy. I'm sure you will be amused by its presumption." A votre sante.
ROFL!
I toast you with my simple Chateau Sichuan bok choy grand cru.
This adds another great accomplishment to the role of honor for Chinese culture. Partial list:
1. compass
2. gunpowder
3. rockets
4. noodles and pasta generally
5. ravioli (stuffed pasta)
6. paper
7. paper money
8. printing with moveable type
9. porcelain ("China") dinnerware
10. bronze casting of large objects
11. healing by sticking pins in patient
12. foot-binding
13. use of famine as method of population control
14. construction of giant wall and other tourist attractions
...and finally, the most amazing:
15. speaking, reading, and writing in Chinese!
So with all that experience, why do we not see any bottles of Chateau Tsing Tao fetching $1,000's of dollars a bottle like some Napa wines (making wines only since the mid 1800's) or French or German wines?
are u sure, have u ever try that? chinese wine are spicy and high alcohol( around 35-65%)
If it has alcohol content over 30%, cannot be wine. Must be distilled beverage of some sort, more like schnapps.
Neat trick since the earth isn't much more than 6,000 years old.
Refigeration was invented by a Floridian.
Breaking news: 12/6/2004 China experiencing the most grueling and horrific hangover known to mankind.
Hey Speedy, you really know your wines! I'm impressed.
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