9,000-Year-Old Chinese Recipe for Wine (ca. 7000 BC)
An ancient formula for brewing wine has been discovered by archaeologists on 9,000-year-old pottery fragments from Henan province, among the ruins of the ancient city Jiahu.
Tests by American scientists found traces of rice, honey, grapes, and other various herbs, a composition remarkably similar to modern rice and grape wines, confirming that the inhabitants of Jiahu had the technology and knowledge to brew wine 9,000 years ago.
Previously, the earliest known evidence for wine-making dated from around 7,400 years ago in Iran; this discovery now brings China to the forefront of early brewing traditions.
Archaeo-chemist Patrick McGovern led the team of researchers who discovered the wine formula; because he did not know exactly how the wine was made, aside from its ingredients, the formula was given to a brewery in Delaware that attempted to imitate the ancient wine – they now sell this product to the general public under the name “Chateau Jiahu”.
McGovern’s team also studied the residue of some 3,000-year-old wines, preserved inside sealed bronze vessels from the same region
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