I'll drink to that where we get behind the scenes of the beverage business.

I'm Levy Dalton.

I'm Erin Scala and here's our show today. Oh, Did you ever wonder what wine was like before modern times? What your ancient

ancestors may have drank with dinner? Well archaeological evidence points to some unique

drinking trends from thousands of years ago, here's a survey of the face of wine

through time. Now before we get into it it's important to note that thousands of years ago,

they hadn't quite figured out the yeast portion of the fermenting equation,

so most brews would have had several ingredients.

Ancient Brewers would find that they'd get a better fermentation when they added certain ingredients, like fruits and honey, which increased these populations.

Today we consider wine to be a pure product and adding things to it is seen as a bit of a sacrilege.

Wine additions are regulated and many are illegal.

But understanding the science of fermentation has allowed us to be more selective.

Thousands of years ago, this wasn't the case.

First, let's go back 9,000 years

to the world's oldest evidence of a wine-like product.

An excavation site known as Jiau on the banks of China's Yellow River shows us many insights into the past.

This area was the birthplace of Chinese culture and the earliest evidence we have of a fermented grape product.

When scientists analyze the chemical imprints left on the inside of the jiahu jars, they discovered

three telling substances. First of all, Tartaric acid. Now this can indicate many things, but they narrowed the list down to Hawthorne and grapes after they found seeds from both of these fruits at the site. They also found chemical imprints from beeswax, which

indicate the presence of honey, and they found photosterels, which indicate rice. So one of our earliest

fermented great beverages most likely also contain hawthorn fruit, rice, and honey.

Now, of course, the grapes used in this beverage grew wild and they were of a different species than Vitis vinifera,

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