The cultivation of grapes is a practice that has existed in world history for millions of years and it has been playing an important part in Western culture for a number of centuries. Since prehistoric times, from the Neolithic period, Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, throughout Ancient Greece and Rome, up to the present day, wine has had a special place in pagan and folk customs, religious ceremonies and festive holidays. Since winemaking itself used to be a lot more complicated and difficult than it is in today’s modern world, for a long period of time the exclusive right of drinking wine was exercised by the social and financial elite. However, due to a considerable boom in its production, wine became more accessible to the masses, playing an ever larger part in the social arena. Therefore the idea that it nowadays represents one of the few things that still unite various cultures and peoples is not an entirely wrong one. In the world which is becoming a global village, being smaller and more connected on a daily basis, there is an immense variety of wines available, and wine lovers can enjoy the very wine they want, anywhere, anytime. That is certainly an advantage in comparison with vinophiles living in previous centuries or millennia, since they were limited, for the most part, to the wines in their own region.
The last few decades have witnessed a real revolution in winemaking, marked by significant improvements in the production technology. Since our knowledge of cultivating grapes for the production of wine is becoming greater every day, we have every reason to believe that the near future has high quality wines in store. Let’s take a quick tour through the history of viticulture and winemaking!
