Origins of winemaking & grapevine domestication

Wine residue in Neolithic pottery (~6000 BCE) points to the South Caucasus as a centre of Vitis vinifera grapevine domestication — a subject bridging nature, genetics and daily life.

The South Caucasus is one of the main cradles of winemaking. The world's oldest chemical traces of grape wine were found in Neolithic pottery from the sites of Gadachrili Gora and Shulaveris Gora, about 50 km south of Tbilisi, dated to 6000–5800 BC.

The wine was identified by tartaric acid — a biomarker of the Eurasian grape Vitis vinifera — together with associated compounds in the vessel walls. The study, led by the molecular archaeologist Patrick McGovern (University of Pennsylvania), was published in PNAS in 2017; the finds are some 600–1,000 years older than the previously known wine from Iran.

As for the vine itself, a large 2023 genomic study (the journal Science) showed that grapes were domesticated about 11,000 years ago in two regions at once — Western Asia (the Levant) and the Caucasus — giving rise to table and wine varieties.

Georgia has preserved this heritage: over 500 indigenous grape varieties are known here, along with the traditional qvevri fermentation method, inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2013.