[Mehrbod]

Persian wine

Persian wine, also called Mey and Badeh (in the Persian language), is a cultural symbol and tradition in Persia, and had a significant presence in Persian mythology, Persian poetry and Persian miniature.

According to Iranian legend, wine was discovered by a Persian girl despondent over her rejection by the king. The girl decided to commit suicide by drinking the spoiled residue left
by rotting table grapes. Instead of poisoning the girl, the fermented must caused her to pass out to awaken the next morning with the realization that life was worth living. She reported back to the king her discovery of the intoxicating qualities of the spoiled grape juice and was rewarded for her find.

Within the body of Persian poetry, grapes and wine appear frequently with symbolic, metaphorical and actual meanings.

Over the course of many centuries miniature painting developed into a sophisticated art of its own in Persia. In galleries and museums around the world, one witnesses Persian miniature paintings that were created in recent years. The most important element that all these paintings share is their subjects. The subjects that are mainly chosen from Hafez’s "Ghazaliyat" or Khayyam’s Rubaiyat. Therefore, the Persian wine, Mey, and Persian wine server (or cup bearer), Saghi, are essential parts to a majority of these paintings. Usually, the old man in the painting is Hafez or Khayyam who, having left his scholarly position and books behind, is now drunk in Kharabat (a mystical run down tavern that is located in a remote and poor corner of town) or in Golshan (garden) drinking wine from the hands of gorgeous Saghis.



7,000 Year-old Wine Jar

The practice of wine-making or viniculture can be traced back to the Neolithic period, 7,000 years ago when the first Eurasian grape vines were domesticated for this purpose. This “Wine Jar” was found at Hasanlu in Hajji Firuz, Iran. It has been reconstructed from multiple fragments.

The jar is one of a series of jars found sunken into the floor along an interior wall of a “kitchen” in a well-preserved Neolithic house at HF Tepe in North West Iran. The jar had a capacity of approximately 9 liters (2.5 gallons). It is the oldest known wine storage container in the world. Analyses of the two jars in the Penn Museum showed that they had contained a resinated wine or “retsina,” i.e., with terebinth tree or pine resin added as a preservative and medical agent. There was a red to go with the white wine, based on the colors of the residues.


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