True Italian Taste 2020 - Cheese & Wine Guidebook (English Edition)

HISTORY OF CHEESE&WINE THE LEGENDARY ORIGINS The origin of wine is so old to the point of fading into legends. Some of them trace the origin of the vine tree back to Adam and Eve, claiming that the forbidden fruit of the earthly Paradise was grape, not apple. Other stories tell of how Noah saved the Vine from the Great Flood, reserving it a safe spot on his Ark for the sake of humanity.

From the creation of the world we move towards human history. Rumors say that the Vine tree originated in India and then spread to Asia first and then the Mediterranean basin. The cultivation of the vine and the practice of winemaking were known in Mesopotamia, in the so called, “fertile crescent”. This was a geographical area which became known as the mother of cereals and laboratory for the discovery of the fermentative processes from which bread, cheese and drinks as wine descend.

The cultivation and production of vines are known in Mesopotamia The role of Wine and its diverse types were known since ancient times, and this euphoric drink was consumed with great pleasure by the people at the top of their societies. In ancient Egypt, for example, the practice of winemaking was so consolidated that in the funeral equipment of Pharaoh Tutankhamun (1339 BC) amphorae containing wine were included with the area of origin, the vintage and the producer some contained wine aged for several years. Isn’t this an example of the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) that dates back to the dawn of time?

Moving to the Mediterranean Sea, where Italy enjoys its central position, the role of wines was so central that a deity was dedicated to wine: Bacchus, God of conviviality.

It can be said that the divine drink of the God contributed to the birth of the RomaVn empire: the ancestors of modern Italians were in fact aware of the bactericidal properties of wine and as usual they brought it to their countryside as a drink of the legionaries.

Plutarch reports how Julius Caesar distributed wine to his soldiers to eradicate a Bacco adolescente - Caravaggio disease that was decimating the army.

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