Wall Street Journal Article on Ancient Wine

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal contained an article entitled Very Well Aged: Archaeologists Say Ancient Wine Cellar Found. I had to read it because I love all things wine and especially historical wines. There is also a video that you can watch that tells a little bit about the discovery. In a nutshell, the archaeologists found 40 one meters jars in what appeared to be a storage room during a dig in a Canaanite city in northern Israel, called Tel Kabri. The jars, dating back to 1700 B.C. were analyzed and found to contain the telltale signs of wine.
The article reminded me of what I previously blogged about in 2011, Celebrating Hajji Firuz Tepe---Evidence of Neolithic Wine! Hajji Firuz Tepe dates back to 5400-5000 B.C. and clay jars found in that dig contained traces of tartaric acid as well as calcium tartrate. This chemical sleuthing, extraction in boiling methanol, a battery of infrared, liquid chromatography and wet-chemical analysis was performed by Dr. Patrick McGovern and his team. More information on Dr. McGovern's work with ancient wines can be found online at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology: The Origins and Ancient History of Wine.
Dr. McGovern has also written a book called Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture.