ABSTRACT
Winemaking is one of the most ancient of man’s technologies and is now one of the most commercially prosperous biotechnological processes. Historians believe that wine was being made in Caucasus and Mesopotamia as early as 6000 BC. Records for wine have been found in Egypt and Phoenicia, dating as far back as 5000 BC. By 2000 BC, it was being produced in Greece and Crete. Colonization by Romans spread winemaking all around the Mediterranean. By 500 BC, it was spread to Sicily, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, and Northern Africa. The cultivation of wine also spread in to Balkan states, and the Romans took it into Germany and other parts of Northern Europe, eventually reaching as far as Britain (Robinson 1994).
