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Whence Wine?
Blending chemistry and archaeology, a researcher tracks the origins of grape fermentation

By RICHARD MONASTERSKY


...This fall Princeton University Press will publish Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture, which details Mr. McGovern's sleuthing through the ages for clues to how people began fermenting grapes. In the book, he provides the first reports on both the Chinese and the Georgian finds, which together document that people started their love affair with wine at least as far back as the beginning of the Neolithic era, near the dawn of agriculture and before the emergence of the first cities. "The history of civilization, in many ways," he writes, "is the history of wine."

It's a heady claim, but one that other archaeologists are ready to toast. "Food and drink are at the center of human existence. That's why this research is so important," says Brian Fagan, an emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

"Wine is all sorts of things. It's a means of social interaction. It's a means of entertaining people. It's a political currency. It's a commercial currency. It's used to seal deals," says Mr. Fagan, who calls Mr. McGovern the world's authority on ancient wines....