Scientists agree that viniculture spread to the world from the territory of Georgia.

On November 13, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), official scientific journal of the National Academy of Sciences, published results of chemical analysis based on which tribes residing across Georgia’s territory began wine-making 8 thousand years ago.

The earliest biomolecular archaeological and archaeobotanical evidence for grape wine and viniculture from the Near East, ca. 6,000–5,800 BC during the early Neolithic Period, was obtained by excavated materials from two sites in Georgia.

The pottery and pottery discovered in two antique Neolithic villages, called Gadachrili Gora and Shulaveris Gora, about 50 kilometers away from Tbilisi. Georgian, Canadian, American, French and Italian scientists are the authors of the article published in PNAS.

“We believe this is the oldest example of the domestication of a wild-growing Eurasian grapevine solely for the production of wine,” said co-author Stephen Batiuk, a senior researcher at the University of Toronto.

Large jars called qvevri, similar to the ancient ones, are still used for wine-making in Georgia, said David Lortkipanidze, director of the Georgian National Museum who helped lead the research.

The recent discovery is published by BBC in the article titled ‘World’s oldest wine’ found in 8,000-year-old jars in Georgia. Previously, the earliest evidence of wine-making was from pottery dating from about 7,000 years ago found in north-western Iran, according to BBC.

In 2011, a wine press and fermentation jars from about 6,000 years ago were found in a cave in Armenia. The world’s earliest non-grape based wine is believe to be a fermented alcoholic beverage of rice, honey and fruit found in China and dating to about 7,000 BC.

On this occasion, Levan Davitashvili, Georgian Agriculture Minister today held a joint press conference together with Davit Lortkipanidze, Director of National Museum and Tinatin Kezeli, President of Georgian Association of Wine Producers.