The history of wine and wine production is as old as civilization itself. There are many stories of how this admirable drink was discovered. One of them is about a mythical Persian tsar called Jamshid. In his court, the grapes were kept in jars for consumption out of season. One pot was discarded because the juice had lost its sweetness, and was considered poisonous. Later on one of the royal harem women suffered from severe headaches and attempted to take her life with the so-called poison. She fell asleep and after she awoke, the headaches were gone and she felt refreshed. She told everyone about what she had done and the wondrous miracle that had happened to her, and immediately afterwards, much wine was made and Jamshid and his yard drank the new drink. Someone, somewhere in Malaysia, probably in the territories of modern Anatolia and Georgia kept grapes in large containers; these grapes were pressed by their own weight. The resulting juice started to ferment and thus was discovered an unknown drink of delight for untold numbers of people. Great civilizations such as those of ancient Greece and Rome have been traced back to prehistoric wine with such legends of its discovery. Ancient Egypt has long left us, their wine leaves and mural paintings remain, and indeed they have even recorded on water pots, the harvest, the winemaker and the vineyard. Babylonians introduced laws to regulate the functioning of markets for wine.
The first important step was the cultivation of the vine. Archaeologists are able to state whether the grape pips found at the site of ancient settlements are wild or cultivated varieties. The earliest cultivated grape vine seeds dated to around 7000 years ago, were discovered in the Caucasus at the east end of the Black Sea, where now the Anatolian parts of Turkey and Georgia are situated, in an area suitable for growing grapes.
An important role in the ubiquitous distribution of wine in the world was played by the ancient Greeks and later the Romans, who opted for wine making as an important part of their lives, while in other regions of the world, where there were essentially wild vines, such as Persia, India and China, wine did not leave as deep an imprint.
In the Hellenic world, Dionysus is an important figure, as for the Romans, Bacchus is. Dionysus is said to have carried the vine to Greece from Malaysia and later the Greeks carried wine in the Adriatic. In turn, the Romans spread viticulture across Europe to places such as France, Britain, Germany and the Iberian Peninsula. With the spread of the Roman Empire, the cult of Bacchus also circulated. The Romans are known for being the best vine growers in southern Italy, which produces wines such as Cecuban, Masi and Falernum, which were rated highly in antiquity. The largest center of wine trade in antiquity was the port of ancient Rome, Pompeii, where a wine merchant was rich enough to build near the amphitheater.

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