New World-Old World.

A brief wine historical summary.

The description is generally seen as Europe against the rest. With vines being brought into southern France by the Greeks in around 600BC, and the Romans taking vines with their invading armies to the rest of central Europe and Britain, the claim for the longest wine producing history must belong to Europe. The Old World.

Voyages of the 14 & 1500s, notably by the Spanish and Portugese introduced, these vines and wine making to the South American continent, and a century or more later European settlers began making wines in North America.

Progressively, over several hundred years, European émigrés took their knowledge, their vines and their love of wine all over the world.

The Australians didn’t begin commercial viticulture until the early 1800s, with New Zealand following closely behind, so our Antipodean cousins are still the relatively new kids on the block. They have in a short time had a significant influence on the whole world of wine, being prepared to use modern science and technology in the wine making process.

Wine making has evolved over centuries and is continuing to do so, this brief whizz through the past may give some insight into why there is such a wide and diverse range of wines, and the best bit is, we can get most of them in the UK. So let us know about your wine experiences-the bargain beauties, the disappointments. Share what you know with the rest of us.