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
Muscat (grape) Muscat (grape) The Muscat family of grapes include over 200 grape varieties belonging to the "Vitis vinifera" species that have been used in wine production and as raisin and table grapes around the globe for many centuries. Their colors range from white (such as "Muscat Ottonel"), to yellow ("Moscato Giallo"), to pink ("Moscato rosa del Trentino") to near black ("Muscat Hamburg"). Muscat grapes and wines almost always have a pronounced sweet floral aroma. The breadth and number of varieties of Muscat suggest that it is perhaps the oldest domesticated grape variety, and there are theories that most families within the