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
Isabella (grape) Isabella (grape) The Isabella grape is a cultivar derived from the grape species "Vitis labrusca" or 'fox grape' which is used for table, juice and wine production. The skin of Isabella when ripened is a dark purple, almost black with a tender green-yellow flesh. It has large well formed fruit clusters with thick bloom. It is a slip skin variety, meaning that the skin separates easily from the fruit. The grapes are used to make wine, most notably Uhudler and Fragolino. The Isabella being of the genus "Vitis x Labruscana" imparts a "foxiness" to the wine and because of this