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[[File:Archeological sites Red- wine and oil (English)couple-night-romantic.jpg|thumbnail|Figure 1. Places where grape wine has been located from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age.left|250px|Wine]] Wine, today, is not simply a beverage but it is linked with religion, cooking, feasting, and our forms of social gatherings. The history of wine also shows it has long been associated with human societies since the early development of agriculture and early domestication of grapes at about 8,000 years ago in the Near East. Since then, wine has become spread on all major continents human societies have spread to.
==Early Development==
Wild grapes <i>Vitis vinifera</i> are found in the eastern Mediterranean regions, stretching from Turkey, the southern Caucasus, and northern Iran. The earliest known grape wine production is found in northern Iran, the site of Hajji Faruz, a site that dates between 6000-5500 BCE (Figure 1). From evidence, it seems this early wine used terebinth as a form of preservative, similar to Greek wine Retsina that is still drunk today. This would suggest that Retsina wine is the oldest known wine type or method production. The wine itself was evident through residue of tartaric acid, a substance commonly found in grape wine. Both white and red wines were likely developed at about the same time, as the main difference is in fermenting with (red wine) or without (white wine) the grape skins.<ref>For more on the Neolithic innovation of wine production, see: McGovern, Patrick E. 2007. <i>Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture.</i> 4. print., 1. paperback print. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.</ref>
[[File:Archeological sites - wine and oil (English).jpg|thumbnail|left|Figure 1. Places where grape wine has been located from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age.]]
In China, residue of rice-based wine, perhaps even earlier than wine found in the Near East, has been found. However, other possibilities, rather than a fermented drink, cannot be ruled out. Wine may have been produced not only with rice but also mixing of fruits as well to add flavor. Tartaric acid was found in clay jars, suggesting fermentation and mixture of substances. While rice wine may have developed early on, it stayed mostly in east Asia. Rice wine spread by the 1st millennium BCE to India, Japan, Southeast Asia, and the Korean Peninsula, where it is still commonly drunk today. In Africa and tropical regions of Malaysia, India, and Southeast Asia, types of palm wine have been produced and are still consumed. It is not clear how old this tradition is but it does likely go back to ancient periods; European travels had observed how the wine was made and harvested in early contact periods. Palm wine can be made by collecting date palm sap and letting it ferment, where it can then be filtered to remove impurities.<ref>For more on rice and palm wine, see: Cyrus Redding, Redding. 2008. <i>History and Description of Modern Wines.</i> Place of publication not identified: Applewood Books.</ref>
In the United States, the oldest continuous winery is found in New York state, which was founded by a French Huguenot settlers in 1810. Wine spread to cold regions of Canada, where specialized ice wine became developed that took advantage of short growing seasons; this type of wine developed into a very sweet wine. By 1811, settlers in Hawaii even began to grow wine in tropical conditions.<ref>For more on the history of wine growing in the United States, see: Pinney, Thomas. 2007. <i>A History of Wine in America: From the Beginnings to Prohibition.</i> Berkeley, Calif.: Univ. of California Press.</ref>
==Summary==
