Oldest Wine Comes From China

9,000 Years of Wine-Making in China
 
 In 2004, archaeochemist Patrick E. McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology found residue of wine that was 9,000-years old in pottery jars from the Neolithic village of Jiahu, in Henan province, Northern China.

Chemical tests (including gas and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, infrared spectrometry, and stable isotope analysis) have revealed a fermented beverage of hawthorn fruit and/or wild grape, beeswax associated with honey, and rice.

Jiahu is the location not only of the earliest wine, but some of the earliest Chinese pottery, musical instruments, domesticated rice, and perhaps pictographic writing.

The discovery of wine as old as what was found in Jiahu is something of a surprise. Earlier wine discoveries in the Zagros mountains of western Iran from 3,500-3,100 B.C. It is believed that the techniques used in the 9000-year old Chinese wine were also used in other ancient, still liquid wine from 3000 years ago from the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties. The wine was found in sealed bronze containers and has been identified as containing specialized rice or millet, flavored with herbs, flowers, and possibly tree resins. A variety of molds may have been used to break down the ingredients. This method is still used.