Most of us think of France, Italy or Spain as the home of wine, but the first wine caves were discovered much further afield. Although we know that people have been making wine for thousands of years, no one is sure who was the first to ferment grapes into the drink we now call wine.

Evidence of ancient wine making has been found in China, the Middle East and Greece, so it seems that several different cultures discovered the process at almost the same time. The oldest known vineyard was found in a cave in Armenia and is over 4,000 years old – the winemakers there used grapes that are still used to make wine today! Wine barrels have been found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs, and the ancient Greeks used wine in secret religious ceremonies.

Although wine has taken many different forms over time, the process has changed very little in the thousands of years since its invention.

The grapes are crushed, pressed and fermented, and the mixture is then put into barrels. The mixture is then matured and bottled.