06

Georgia
A History
of Wine
Main Story
> David Lordkipanidze There are many vessel fragments at the Gadachrili
Gora archaeological site, where the chemical markers
This article has been prepared in of wine and grape dust that accompany winemaking
were discovered together, indicating that truly ancient
cooperation with National Geographic
winemaking was carried out at the site.
Georgia.

A
rchaeological data show that posi-
tive attitudes towards grapes and
wine in Georgia have been unam-
biguous from the earliest times. Large jars
known as kvevri, similar to the ancient Ne-
olithic vessels found here, are still widely
used to make wine in Georgia, which con-
firms how deep the roots of wine culture
continue to grow in this region. Indeed,
this continuity of viniculture is an essential
concept – instead of an episodic pheno-
menon, the picture is larger, as we began
making wine in ancient times and conti-
nue this key cultural activity today.
Research in Neolithic sites (6th millen-
nium BC) on what is Georgian territory
today began with expeditions by the S.
Janashia State Museum of the Georgian
Academy of Sciences in the 1960s. Among
those leading research during that time ar-
chaeologists Aleksandre Javakhishvili, Otar
Japaridze and Tamaz Kiguradze. These
sites, where the oldest wine vessels were
found, provided evidence that this area
was indeed the cradle of wine.
In 1999, a “wine city” called Vinopolis
opened in London where a corner entitled
“Georgia – Cradle of Wine” was created at
the initiative of the company Georgian
Wine and Spirits’ directors, Levan Gache-
chiladze and Tamaz Kandelaki, with sup-
port from the Embassy of Georgia in the
UK. The history of Georgian wine was pre-
sented in the exhibition hall of Vinopolis
with replicas from the Georgian State Mu-
seum. Subsequently Academician Levan
Chilashvili dedicated a book to the same
topic.
The notion that Georgia is the cradle of
wine appeared first in international litera-
ture when the well-known wine expert and
writer Hugh Johnson published a book in
1989, “The Story of Wine”. The same as-
sumption was echoed by another recogni-
zed researcher of wine history, Pennsylva-
nia University Professor Patrick McGovern,
who travelled to Georgia in 1998. In 2003
he published “Ancient Wine”, a book in whi-
ch the Caucasus is mentioned as the likely
homeland of wine. These theories were
largely based on results of the study of gra-
pe seeds that had been discovered during
the 1960s archaeological excavations; ho-
wever the international scientific commu-

GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM 7

nity had not recognized the data since in
previous decades it was not yet possible to
carry out absolute dating.
I became involved with the topic of
wine in 2006 when the National Museum
was invited to renew the Vinopolis exhi-
bition in London. Since that year, one of
our main directions has become research
on wine-related issues and to inform the
international community on the results
of our studies. At this time also, excava-
tions of Neolithic archaeological sites
had resumed, and a Wine History Foun-
dation was created within the Chamber
of Trade and Industry under the presi-
dency of Jemal Inaishvili, to support re-
search on wine culture in Georgia. Cho-
sen as emblem of the Foundation was a
7 th-century BC sculpture of a toastmaster
(tamada) holding a cup, discovered at
the Vani archaeological site, now in the
Georgian National Museum.
8 GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM
In 2008 Professor McGovern visited Ge-
orgia again and gave a lecture on the ad-
vances in chemical research and ancient
wine. Symposiums dedicated to the topic
of wine, including kvevri technology, follo-
wed in ensuing years. Finally in 2014, at
the initiative of the Georgian Wine Associa-
tion and with support from the Georgian
Government, an international multidis-
ciplinary project, “Research of Georgian
Grape and Wine Culture” began under the
direction of Levan Davitashvili and the Na-
tional Wine Agency. The study involved
Georgian scientists and researchers from
universities of Pennsylvania, Montpellier,
Milan, Copenhagen and Toronto, as well as
the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel)
and the National Institute for Agricultural
Research Montpellier Centre (INRA).
Biomolecular research, supervised by
Professor McGovern, confirmed the exis-
tence of organic acids (tartaric, malic, suc-
cinic and citric) typical for wine on the walls
of clay vessels discovered during recent ex-
cavations of Gadachrili Gora and Shulaveris
Gora archaeological sites of Neolithic pe-
riod in the Marneuli District of Kvemo Kartli.
These markers indicated the presence of
wine made from Vitis vinifera grape varie-
ties. Paleobotanical studies carried out by
Georgian National Museum scientists Eliso
Kvavadze and Nana Rusishvili showed that
viniculture was widely common in that re-
gion during the early Neolithic period. Re-
searchers from the University of Milan led
by Osvaldo Failla replicated the climate of
the 6th millennium BC and confirmed that
the conditions in Kvemo Kartli 8000 years
ago would have sustained grape cultiva-
tion. Laboratory studies at the Weizmann
Institute in Israel supervised by Elisabetta
Boaretto used carbon14 dating to determi-
ne that the samples found originated from
6000-5800 BC, and were 600 years older
than the earliest known wine traces from
the Zagros Mountains in Iran.
In November this year, the journal of
the US National Academy of Sciences,
PNAS (Proceedings of the National Aca-
demy of Sciences) published an article
entitled “Early Neolithic Wine of Georgia
in the South Caucasus” updating recent
studies and results. It confirmed that tri-
bes inhabiting this region made wine as
early as 6000-5800 BC.
The article followed on an earlier exhi-
bition in Bordeaux, France portraying the
8000-year history of Georgian wine. The
“Guest Wine Region” is part of a series of
exhibitions organized by the newly esta-
blished Centre for Wine Civilizations and
Culture, or La Cité du Vin, in Bordeaux. The
exhibition showcases artefacts related to
wine culture over a long chronological
period rather than showcasing a “great
past”, thus illustrating the continuity of
wine culture throughout millennia. Geor-
gia was the first “Guest Wine Region” at this
celebration; exhibitions included artefacts,
replicas and photographs from collections
of the Georgian National Museum. The ar-
chaeological discoveries of the Neolithic
period marking the initial stages of wine-
making in Kvemo Kartli were thus the star-
ting point of the exhibition.
The contemporary scientific community
is becoming increasingly convinced that
Georgia is the “cradle of wine”. This has been
confirmed both by archaeological materials
related to the culture of grapes and wine
and by archeobotanical data. Scientists glo-
bally recognize that the oldest indications of
winemaking have been discovered on the
territory of Georgia from where it was diffu-
Exhibition “Georgia – Cradle of
sed throughout the world, making an enor-
Wine”, Bordeaux, France, City of
mous impact on agriculture, human culture, Wine (above); wine vessel with relief
biology, medicine and the development of image of grapes. Khrami Didi Gora,
civilizations. 6th century BC (below).
GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM 9