Areni-1 winery, the oldest known
Bodega de Areni-1, la más antigua conocida
- Date
- c. 4100 BCE · confidence high
- Place
- Areni-1 cave, Vayots Dzor, Armenia
- Credited to
- Chalcolithic peoples of the southern Caucasus (excavation by Gregory Areshian, Boris Gasparyan and Ron Pinhasi)
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
A facility with a clay treading floor, fermentation vats and storage jars yielding grape seeds and anthocyanin residues (malvidin), published in 2011. It is the oldest identified winery.
Grape wine at Gadachrili Gora (Georgia, c. 6000 BC) is older, but is recognised from residues; Areni-1 is the oldest production installation.
What it led to
- evidence of workshop-scale wine production six millennia before Rome
- reinforces the southern Caucasus as the cradle of viticulture
- cave assemblage, with the Areni-1 shoe, preserved brain and cereals thanks to dryness