Love wine? A team of researchers found out just about how old the practice of wine-making is. Experts from University of Toronto in Canada and Georgian National Museum have found that wine-making as a practice began hundreds of years ago on the border of Western Asia and Eastern Europe. Some of the previously conducted studies date traces of the earliest possible records of wine-making back to 5400-5000 BC in Zagros Mountains of Iran. Pottery fragments of ceramic jars recovered from the sites were collected and subsequently analysed by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania in the US. The team studied the nature of the residue preserved inside the jars and concluded the remnants to have been preserved for several millennia.
"We believe this is the oldest example of the domestication of a wild-growing Eurasian grapevine solely for the production of wine," said Stephen Batiuk, research associate at University of Toronto. The excavated sites were originally two villages that date back to the Neolithic period. The Neolithic period began around 15200 BC in parts of the Middle East and ended between 4500 and 2000 BC in other parts of the world.
"Our research suggests that one of the primary adaptations of the Neolithic way of life as it spread to Caucasia was viniculture," said Batiuk.
Wine consumption, when in moderation, is often associated with promoting good health. It is known to promote skin health. In one of the most recently published studies, experts noted moderate wine consumption to boost female fertility. Researchers at Washington University, US revealed that women who consumed more than five servings of red wine a month enjoyed higher ovarian reserve - a measure of a woman's reproductive health.
Inputs from PTI