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
Bianca (grape) facility in Eger. Viticulturists László Bereznai and József Csizmazia crossed the Slovenia wine grape Bouvier (believed to be an offspring of the Pinot grape) with Eger 2 (a selfling of Villard blanc). The grape was originally named "Egri Csillagok 40" meaning "star of Eger" with 40 being a breeding code but was officially registered under the name Bianca when it was authorized for wine production in 1982. In Serbia, Bianca was crossed with Petra to create two different pink-berried wine grape varieties, Bačka and Rubinka, which have been authorized for use in wine production since 2002. Bianca is an early