History Of Growing Grapes

Wine and grape growing in general existed even during the Neolithic period. It does spread till modern times from around the year 5 BC. Georgia is famous for having the oldest ever VItis vinifera domestication. While in 3200 BC there were different establishments that were focused on growing grapes.



During the earliest known cultivation the hermaphrodite gender of the Vitis vinifera species were given more importance than the infertile male and female vines that were dependant on nearby male vines for being pollinated. Hermaphrodite vines showed the ability to basically pollinate themselves.



Phoenicians basically first started using various viticulture practices. Carthage eventually saw these practices used later on in time. There is a 28 volume manuscript by a Carthaginian writer Mago that speaks about these viticulture practices in detail. This is one manuscript that did manage to make it through the Roman Empire's Carthage artifacts destruction attempts in the third Punic War and today gives us much info about the history of growing grapes.



Inspired by such scripts Cato de Elder ended up writing De Agra Cultura around 160 BC, a book in which agriculture and viticulture of Romans was described. The 12 volumes text by Columella, De Re Rustica, mentioned many details about the Roman viticulture of the time. Columella writings are the first known text to mention usage of trellis for supporting grape wines.



He also speaks about the earlier trend of training the vines to grow on tree trunks and how he personally favored the usage of stakes for support and not tree trunks. Columella basically liked stakes because it was really hard to prune vines when they were growing on trees. And pruning was essential too as the vines needed lots of sunlight which was not possible if the vegetation became too thick.



Different world known wine growing regions including German Mosel, French Bordeaux, Spanish Rioja, Rhone and Burgundy became popular when we saw the Roman Empire spreading their dominance towards Western Europe.



Roman viticulturists were the pioneers in identifying steep hillsides as ideal locations for growing grapevines. They understood that cold air always travelled down from the hill top to the valley. Grapevines were really delicate while in cold environments and winter frost stood out as not really suitable for a lot of grapes.



Catholic monks were really good viticulturists in the middle Ages. They introduced the concept of cru vineyards to produce similar vintage wines. This was when Metayage system appeared in France and became quite popular. The laborers had the choice of deciding most of the facts linked with viticulture from grape species to method of growing.



Most practices of the middle age continued till the 18th century. A bunch of studies have been done to see compatibility levels of certain grapevines with given locations. Quantity was discussed a lot and did bring in conflicts. Wealthy and powerful landlords wanted quality as this offered good wine. Laborers did think about quantity too because this gave them more money.



History of grape growing spans over decades from 5BC to the modern times, viticulture was bought to Europe from Greece by the Roman Empire. It was Catholic Monks that introduced modern day vineyard culture. There are many places that have proof that viticulture was even popular in ancient times.