A brief history of wine

According to Cornell University , archeologists date grape cultivation and wine making to sometime between 6,000 and 4,000 BC in Mesopotamia and the coastal areas of the Caspian Sea. At that time only aristocrats, royalty, and members of clergy enjoyed wine while peasants and commoners drank ale, mead and beer.

Ancient Egyptian Papyri and Sumerian tablets dating back to 2200 BC are the oldest documents that mention wine as a man-made medicine. In ancient Egypt, wine was also savored mainly by royalty and the upper classes.

When wine making arrived in ancient Greece, it was enjoyed by the whole spectrum of society, and became a popular theme in literature, religion, leisure, medicine and mythology.

The ancient Romans took vine clippings from Greece back to Rome. From there centers of viticulture soon appeared all over southern Europe, then in Germany and the rest of the continent. Hippocrates, often referred to as the "father of western medicine", promoted wine as part of a healthy diet. He also claimed that wine was good for disinfecting wounds, as well as a liquid in which medications could be mixed and taken more easily by patients. Hippocrates said wine should be used to alleviate pain during childbirth, for symptoms of diarrhea, and even lethargy.

In the Bible, in his first epistle to Timothy, Paul the Apostle recommended a little wine every now and then to help digestion.

Persian Avicenna in the 11th century AD acknowledged that wine helped digestion, but only recommended it as a disinfectant while dressing wounds because Islamic laws prohibited the consumption of alcohol.

During the Middle Ages, Catholic monks frequently used wine for a wide range of medical treatments.

Wine was so linked to medical practice that in the first printed book on wine, Arnaldus de Villa Nova (circa. 1235-1311 AD), a physician, wrote at length on wine's benefits for the treatment of many illnesses and conditions, including sinus problems and dementia.

One of the reasons wine was so popular throughout history is because safe drinking water was often scarce. During the 1892 cholera epidemic in Hamburg, Germany, wine was used to sterilize water.

Visit Macarena's Delicorner and discover our selection of Red Wines from Ribera de Duero (Spain)