Georgia, both the Republic and the State, have robust wine industries, but only one can now claim to be the world’s oldest wine producer, with new evidence of wine production in the Caucasus going back to the Neolithic era.
In fact, researchers for PNAS say, even the word ‘wine’ may come from the ancient Georgian word ‘ghvino.’ The research, using state-of-the-art technology on newly-excavated materials from two sites, was led by Patrick McGovern of Pennsylvania University, said by some to be the “Indiana Jones of ancient wine.”
Georgia borders the Black Sea and is at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains, and not far from the previous ancient wine champion in Iran. For years part of the Soviet Union, the area is working at developing export channels for its products, and a robust tourism industry.
