Archeologists have discovered the oldest wine-making facility ever found, using biochemical methods to identify a dry red vintage made about 6,000 years ago in what is now southern Armenia.
This makes it 1,000 years older than any other wine-making facility ever discovered.
"This is the world's oldest known installation to make wine," Gregory Areshian of the University of California Los Angeles, who helped lead the study.
The wine press would have held a few gallons of juice and crushed grapes, likely working with the time-honored technique of barefoot stomping, Areshian said.
Chemical traces point to grape juice and, given the lack of refrigeration, the juice would certainly have been fermented into wine, Areshian said.
Archaeologist Levon Petrosyan looking at the 6,100-year-old wine press
The press itself is a shallow clay basin about three feet (one meter) in diameter, surrounded by grape seeds and dried-out grape vines.
