The First Drink Problem isn’t as daunting as The Chicken-Egg Conundrum, but it does seem to linger. It appears that the question has now been definitively settled (I’ll get to that in a minute), but noodling the problem has convinced me that the main distinction to be drawn between these two ancient beverages lies mainly in the relative durability — or lack of it — of their respective ingredients.
Grapes are supremely perishable. A ripe, broken berry will ferment spontaneously and fruit can’t be kept for long without deteriorating. Cereal grains present just the opposite problem, since they refuse to ferment on their own and must be driven to it. With a view to converting their starches to fermentable sugars they are first sprouted, then cracked and soaked in water to produce a sugar-rich liquid. Finally, you have something yeasts can work with. Wine cuts all these steps out.
While both cereal and fruit harvests must be accomplished in a single burst of hard (often communal) labor, grain, once dried a bit, can be stored for long periods of time. Brewing can be carried out in quite small batches, with simple tools, drawing only so much grain from the store as is required in each instance. In the ancient Near East both bread and beer were everyday household outputs, while wine was already an expensive, exotic beverage consumed by elites. While it seems clear that wine, the original self-starter, must have preceded beer by some millennia, when we return to the question of which of these old rivals enjoys absolute historical priority, I’m afraid the answer is . . . neither.
Professor Patrick McGovern at the University of Pennsylvania has demonstrated conclusively that our first intentional encounter with alcohol came via a promiscuous mash-up of whatever we could induce to ferment (honey, berries, grapes, tree fruits) along with some flavorings, all done in a single, primitive ceramic pot.
In other words, that first drink was was neither beer nor wine, but a cocktail: The original – and primordial — Old Fashioned.
This week in the wine corner . . . .
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 3-6 PM – GO AHEAD, HAVE A COW
2017 Meinklang, Burgenland White, $16.95 #getfreshwith me
2017 Meinklang, Burgenland Rosé of Pinot Noir Frizzante, $21.95 #popstar
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 7, 3-6 PM – EVERYBODY INTO THE COOL
NV Domaines des Terres Blanches “Ancestral Brut,” $24.95 #farmsteadbubbly
2016 Tiberio Trebbiano d’Abruzzo Bianco, $18.95 #antiquestop
2014 Domaine Saladin “Loi” Côtes du Rhone, $19.95 #myrhonetruelove