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FOODS OF THE GODS: PART
I
by Dr. Michael Poe Phd.
WINE IN ANCIENT EGYPT
"In water you see your own face, but in
wine the heart of its garden"
ancient Egyptian proverb
Grapevines and making of wine in Egypt goes back
to ancient antiquity. In predynastic and early dynastic periods
(3200 bce and before) vineyards existed for the use of Egypt's
rulers and nobles.
There is still considerable speculation about
where "vitis vinifera" or the wine grape first
originated. Some think it started south of the Caucasus and south
of the Caspian sea; others believe in Egypt and traveled into the
Middle East. According to William Younger in his book, 'Gods, Men
and Wine' "It is in Egypt where we must go for our fullest
knowledge of man's early and deliberate growing of wine."
Plutarch said that he was told that Osiris was the first to drink
wine and to teach men how to plant the vine.
First dynastic tombs of Abydos record the
existence of vineyards including the earliest record of wine
cellars and by the time of King Zoser, whose step pyramid was the
first pyramid built there existed a partial list of vineyards
including the famous vineyard "Horus on the Height of
Heaven" which produced wine down into the Greek period.
There were several types of early Egyptian
vineyards. The first grapevines incorporated into a formal garden
for creating beauty as well as for utility. The second was a work
of agriculture and existed in an orchard garden along with fruit
trees and vegetables. The third was a formal vineyard as we know
them today. The 3rd dynastic administrator of northern Egypt,
Methen, had a garden-vine at his estate and a regular vineyard by
itself in another area. In addition to nobles owning vineyards,
temples had their own on their temples estates, and the pharaohs
had theirs as well; Rameses III lists 513 vineyards belonging to
the temple of Amon-Ra.
In orchards grape vines were object of special
attention and was one of the gardeners most important jobs. The
hieroglyphic sign for vines is used in the writing of the words
"orchard" and "gardener." There were also
specific jobs with titles like "Master of the Vineyard,"
and "Master of the Vine-Dresser."
The best vineyards were in the Delta, followed
by the Fayyum, Memphis, and then southern Egypt and the oasises.
The major sources of information on the production of wine are the
wall paintings and reliefs from tombs of the Old Kingdom (Saqqara)
and the New Kingdom (at Thebes). The comments and recommendations
of classical authors give us insight into the qualities and types
of the various wines, vineyards and types.
Many scenes from tombs gives us a fairly
accurate picture of the Egyptian vineyards and the techniques of
wine production. The best site to locate a vineyard was on a hill,
but if there wasn't one than the Egyptians made an artificially
raised plot of land and planted the vines there. A wall generally
enclosed the area and vegetables and fruit were planted with the
grapes. They were watered by hand generally from a water basin.
There were four ways to grow grape vines. One
was to erect two wood pillars with the upper ends forked, and a
wooden pole laid over the top where the vines were laid. This type
of support also forms a hieroglyph which is used in the words
meaning ‘garden,’ ‘wine,’ and ‘vine’.
A second way is to train the grape vines to grow
on trellis’s supported on transverse rafters that rested on
columns. Occasionally the columns were carved and painted. A third
way was to make vine arbors consisting of branches with the ends
placed in the ground to form an arch. And lastly, some vines were
grown and pruned to make low bushes and needed no support.
Production of Wine
When the grapes ripened they were picked by hand
and put into large rush baskets. These were carried on the
shoulders, on the head, or slung on a yoke.
The baskets of grapes were emptied into vats for
crushing. These large vats were large enough to contain up to six
men who crushed the grapes with their feet. The grape juice flowed
through a hole in the side of the vat into a smaller vat, and then
poured into pottery jars where it was fermented.
Secondary pressing was used to separate the rest
of the juice form the stems, seeds and skin. The residue was put
into a sack and was stretched, either on a frame with a pole at
one end or between two poles. The pole was twisted to extract the
juice that was then collected into a large vessel.
Fermentation took place in open vessels then the
wine was racked and transferred to other jars, being sealed with
rush bung-stoppers and covered with mud capsules. Small holes were
left near the tops of the caps to allow carbon dioxide that was
produced in the secondary fermentation to escape. When
fermentation finally stopped the holes were sealed.
Although there is no evidence of the widespread
use of this technique, wine was sometimes clarified by being
racked from jar to jar. Sometimes it was strained (a form of
decanting) before drunk, and occasionally the Egyptians would use
a siphon (see illustration) to keep the wine dregs from mixing
with the wine to be poured.
Famous Wines
It appeared that ancient Egypt had the equivalent
of the French ‘Appellation Controlee’ laws. There was a “Royal
Sealer of Wine” who overlooked the honest labeling laws, and
much of what you find on wine labels today were on the wine labels
of ancient Egypt. These included:
- Name of the Estate
- Location
- Type of wine
- Date of vintage
- Vintners Name
- Assessment of Quality
An example of such a wine label is Star of Horus
on the Height of Heaven (this vineyard estate started around 2600
bce or the time of Zoser and lasted to 300 ce); Northern Xois
District, Chassut Red (Chassut Red was reputed to be not ready to
drink until it had aged 100 years!), Sekem-Ka, vintner; very, very
fine grade.
Keeping a wine for years to mature was not all
that uncommon. In the annex of Tutankhamon’s tomb 36 wine jars
were found and each bore a docket in heiratic giving the date,
place, and vintage of the wine and showing the Aten Domain
Vineyard wines to be maintained for at least 21 years.
Something we don’t do today is to label the
wine with the name of the vintner. It was important in ancient
Egypt since if the vintner was famous for producing fine wines and
moved to another vineyard, it would be a way that the Egyptian
wine buyer could continue buying fine wine. Today we keep track to
the movement of vintners through wine magazines and newsletters.
We know that many nobles tombs have paintings of specially
constructed storehouses in which the wine amphorae were stacked in
rows on shelves, giving us a glimpse of the first true wine
cellars.
Other famous vineyards include Phoenix Estate on
the Horizon of Kemet in the Sile district; the Vineyard Ways of
Horus (Lake Menzalah district); Preserver of Kemet (royal estate
in the Piramese/Tanis district); Estates on the Western River (on
the Canopic branch of the Nile and highly thought of, this wine
was found in cellars on the palace of Amenophis II at Tebes and
Armana. It seems that it is possible that the ancient Egyptians
also cut up Egypt into wine growing districts, much like France
does today.
Egyptian wines were graded as good (nfr), twice
good (nfr,nfr), three times good (nfr,nfr,nfr)as being the finest.
There was also another type of grading; genuine, sweet,
merrymaking (not so good), and blended.
Variations of wine from grapes or other products
were “enhanced” occasionally by blending other wines with it,
or the additions of herbs and other flavorings. There is also the
possibility of adding honey to wine, and some wine labels
indicated “sweet” wine which could indicate either a specific
type of grape that makes sweet wine, such as a Muscat, or the
addition of flavorings. And that brings us to one other matter.
Wines from things other than
grapes
There are five basic groups of Egyptian wines;
those from grapes, dates, palm, pomegranates, and other fruits.
Palm wine was produced by tapping the trunk near
its branches and collecting the juice and then fermenting the
liquid. Date wine is produced by mashing dates and fermenting the
resulting juice.
Pomegranate wine was also produced. I have
tasted a bottle of pomegranate wine (of recent vintage), and find
that it has a fruity, sweet taste no unlike many ‘blush’ wines
made today. Meads from honey were also made.
Just how good was the wine of
Ancient Egypt?
The ancient Romans, who had quite a lot of
vineyards of their own, also imported wines from Egypt. They
considered the vineyards along the Canopic branch of the Nile to
have some the best wines. Two writers during the Roman empire
record the wine at Mareotis is white, fragrant, thin, but of good
quality. They also record that the wine of Sebennytus in the
central delta, ranked high in excellence. The Romans also were
very impressed with wines grown around the lake Menzalah district,
the Tanis district, northern Xois area and in the region of Sile.
Gods and Goddesses of wine
Wine was considered a particularly special
offering to any of the ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses. But it
was Renentet (also called Ernutet or Renen-utet) the goddess of
plenty and harvests who invariably had a small shrine near the
wine press and vat, as well as on the spout where the juices flows
from the vat to the receiving tank. Osiris was also a god of wine
as head honoree at the Ouag festival. the hieroglyphics making up
the festival name include three wine jars on a table, and a fourth
jar being offered by an outstretched hand. The goddess Hathor (Het-hor)
was, among other things, the goddess of wine and intoxication.
So while we constantly read of beer being the
drink of the people and one of the chief staples of life of the
ancient Egyptian, it is wine and the vineyard that holds a special
place of honor as a Food of the Gods.
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