Grape evidence for a dominant position of wine-making in human culture dates from 8,000 years ago in Georgia. The oldest known winery was found in Armenia, dating to around 4000 BC. By the 9th century AD the city of Shiraz was known to produce some of the finest wines in the Middle East. Thus it has been proposed that Syrah red wine is named after Shiraz, a city in Persia where the grape was used to make Shirazi wine. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics record the cultivation of purple grapes, and history attests to the ancient Greeks, Phoenicians, and Romans growing purple grapes
Galician wine granted DO status in 1996 and for most of the late 20th century and early 2000s the majority of the wine produced here was made from the Mencía grape with limited white wine production coming from the Godello and Albariño grape. However, by the late 2000s, Palomino was the most widely planted grape in the region though Mencía still has a significant presence producing what wine expert Tom Stevenson calls "promising reds". Stevenson also notes that on the steep, terraced vineyards of Ribeira Sacra that Albariño has the potential to produce the most exciting wine. Other wine grapes grown in