Backstory

I honestly have no history with wine, for the most part. The only wines I’ve ever consumed are a five dollar Pinot Grigio and Yellowtail red and white wine. I really started to become interested in wine this past summer when I landed a job at a general store called H.B. Provisions in Kennebunkport, Maine. Kennebunkport is a huge tourist attraction during the summer because George Bush Sr. has a summer home there, and it just so happens that H.B. made lunch for Bush Sr. practically everyday, so our store was actually a tourist attraction as well. People would come in and just look around, and even though H.B. is a small store, there is a large selection of wines, and a lot of the time people would leave with wine. I didn’t really understand why people were so enthused with the drink, until I actually started looking at all the different wines H.B. had to offer. There were blueberry wines from Maine, Australian wines, raspberry wines, and many other kinds, of course. That’s when I really started paying attention when I went to friendly get-togethers with my parents. They always discuss wine, or at least my dad does with his good friend, Mac. One night they went on and on and on about the best and worst wines they’ve tasted, the vineyards they’ve been to and want to go to, and so forth. I was amazed. I knew beforehand I wanted to open up my own shop one day, I just didn’t know what for. Now I knew, I wanted a wine shop (and a photo gallery, but that’s a different story).
So that’s my history with wine. I know little about it, and the things I do know come from my parents drinking wine. Now, as for the history of wine itself, wine was first made by the Egyptians during the Neolithic period (8500-4000 BC). The Egyptians used different food processing methods to come up with some of the first foods, such as bread, and beverages, such as beer and wine. They made the first wine jar out of clay, and an excavator named Mary M. Voigt discovered a yellow residue in one of these wine jars. She determined that it was the first ever wine made, called Chateau Hajji Firuz. The five major, and perhaps only, wines made back in the Neolithic period were created by the Nile Delta.
As for wine coming to the United States, it came along with Leif Ericsson on his voyage from Greenland to our country, which at the time was unknown. Leif came with a man named Tryker, who at one point during the exploration of the new found United States went off by himself and found wine-berries, or grapes. Because of this find, Leif named the land he found “wineland,” and then sailed away.
Today, France is the number one wine producer, making 4.7 million tons of wine per year. Next comes Italy with 4.1 million tons, Spain with 3.1, the United States with 2.3, and Australia and Argentina tie at 1.1.
In each of the 50 states in the United States, there’s a commercial winery. However, the majority of wines made in America come from Washington, Oregon, and California. Washington produces more wine grapes than any other state, minus California. Washington is a prime stop to grow these grapes because of its diverse climate, which allows several different kinds of wine to be grown, such as Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Merlot. The majority of wines from Oregon are Pinot Grigio and Pinot Noir. Though the west coast is the prime spot to produce wines, the oldest operating winery in the United States is The Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville, NY, which was established in 1839 by John Jacques. Even during the Prohibition in the United States (which I’ll cover later), the winery stayed open by producing wines used for sacraments, such as in Churches.
Obviously, there’s more to the history of wine than just this page I’ve written, but I think these are a few of the more important facts of wine. I will be focusing mainly on wine culture in the United States, but I’ll need to bring in the beginning history of wine, which started in other countries.