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Importers of Fine Wines Since 1919 | Resources for the Trade |
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The Stuff of Legends…
As the months passed, the king worked his way through his stash of grapes, cracking open one clay vessel after another after another until one day, he was presented with a bowl of grapes whose berries were slightly liquid and slightly “off” in flavor. He spat out the tainted fruit thinking that it had spoiled. Jamshid, however, was ever the practical ruler. He did not dispense with the rest of the “poisonous” fruit, but rather resealed it and carefully marked it to use against overly ambitious underlings, visiting heads of state, and others who had fallen from his good graces. Poison was as precious a commodity as food. Enter the concubine. Here was a woman who wanted to end it all. Perhaps she was no longer the King’s favorite…or perhaps she was the King’s favorite and THAT was the problem—regardless, she stole into the kitchens, found the jar of tainted fruit and ate until her senses began to fail her and her coordination faltered. Despite her desperate hopes, her altered state was not the harbinger of death. Within hours, the King found his concubine dancing among the parapets laughing like a loon. Observing her wild and reckless behavior, he commanded that the young lady be sent directly to bed…which may or may not have been the answer to her prayers. In all honesty, no one knows for sure how that story ended, but lore and legend tells us that this was how wine was discovered a long, long time ago in a faraway land. In the Beginning…
In truth, fermentation represents the simple conversion of grape sugars into alcohol through the action of yeasts. Both heat and carbon dioxide gas are given off as by-products; the bubbling gas simulates a “boiling” effect and can be quite “spirited” when in full ferment. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
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The grapevine itself is believed to have originated just south of the Black Sea in what is known as Transcaucasia(Modern day Iran sits on its borders.) Interestingly, this area of the world lies in close proximity to Mount Ararat (Turkey) where Noah is purported to have planted the first vineyard after the Great Flood.
Archeological finds have traced grape growing back to 4000 B.C.E, but many hypothesize that the domestication of the vine may actually go further back than that. As for wine culture…it is believed that it was the Persians who first found a way to “put the genie in the bottle” somewhere between 5000 B.C.E and 3500 B.C.E.
It was Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, who granted Midas his heart’s desire---that everything he touched turn to gold.
What is the chemistry of fermentation?
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Once upon a time in the ancient land of Persia (modern-day Iran) there lived a King named Jamshid who loved grapes above all other fruit. Come harvest time, he would command his kitchen staff to fill large clay amphora with freshly picked grape clusters to keep in storage for his later enjoyment.
In the beginning, the ancients had no clue as to why juice fermented. They simply marveled at a liquid in the heat of ferment with all its riotous “boiling” and thought that the beverage was imbued with spirit. This belief held fast and echoes still in our modern-day reference to the business of beverage alcohol as…the “spirit industry”. 
Dionysus is the Greek god of wine--the only god to have a mortal mother (Semele) and an immortal father (Zeus).
The yeasts responsible for fermentation are everywhere in nature! They blow by on the wind and cling to the waxy coating on the grape berry itself. They live and thrive within a winery too. Once they have access to the sugars inside the berry (via crushing, for example), fermentation begins.