A good year

Oenophiles take note: 5980 BC was a very good year for wine. Scientists announced the discovery of the oldest-known evidence for winemaking, detecting telltale chemical signs of the fermented alcoholic beverage made from grapes in fragments of nearly 8000-year-old earthenware jars at two sites about 50km south of Georgia’s capital Tbilisi. Until now, the oldest winemaking evidence had come from pottery from the Zagros Mountains in Iran dating to 5400-5000 BC. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.