Wine

Wine in Ancient Egypt


 * Egyptian Name:**

//Yrp,// //Jrp,// or //Irep//

Known to the ancient Egyptians since before 3,000 B.C.E., wine was very popular in Egypt, and at least six kinds were produced. An expensive drink, it was mostly confined to the upper classes.

Egypt had vineyards all over the country, though most of them were located in the Nile delta. One vineyard is said to have delivered in one year 1,200 jars of good-quality wine and 50 jars of medium-quality wine. Much like today, the ancient Egyptian vineyards developed reputations, and vintages from certain ones were sought after more than others. Red, green, white, and purple grapes were harvested in late summer, and wine was shipped all over Egypt in special jars protected by woven cushioning.

Many scenes from tombs gives us a fairly accurate picture of the ancient 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 enclosed the area and vegetables and fruit were planted among the grapes. They were watered by hand from a water basin.

There were four ways to grow grape vines: one was to erect two wooden pillars with the upper ends forked, with a pole laid over the top where the vines were laid. This type of support also forms a hieroglyphic which was used in the words "garden," "wine," and "vine." A second way was to train the grape vines to grow on trellises, 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.

The grapes were handpicked and carried in reed baskets to enormous vats made of stone, where the traditional treading on the grapes took place. Treaders are shown maintaining their balance by hanging on to a rope or a crossbeam above the vat, accompanied in some cases by music. This method is still used today in France and Spain. The juice flowed through clay pipes into a large basin and was drained through a hole covered with a cloth filter, and captured in open jars which had been lined with wax. The leftover skins and pips were put into canvas bags which were twisted to wring out the remaining juice. Sometimes a special wine press was used instead.

The jars of juice were sealed with a cap of clay and marked with the date, name of the vineyard, the district, and the person in charge of the wine. The grade of wine was also indicated on the lid, such as "good," "twice good," "three times good," "sweet," "dry," "merrymaking" and so on. An example of such a wine label is "Star of Horus on the Height of Heaven, 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."

The jars were then left to ferment in underground cellars, sometimes for years. Wine, once opened, stops improving and turns into vinegar, a fact alluded to by the maxim in the //Instruction of Ankhsheshonq//: "Wine matures as long as one does not open it." Aged in sealed earthenware jars, they had to be broken when it was time to decant the wine, and then poured into yet another jar. When the wine was ready to be served, it was poured into shallow vessels with a short stem, similar to our modern wine glasses.

Both red and white wines were known by the 18th Dynasty at least, with the red being favored. Sometimes a small amount of sea water, honey, or pieces of fruit were added to enhance the flavor, or lotus or poppy blossoms for narcotic effects. Mulled wine was made by heating it, then blending it with fragrant resins. Meat and fish were sometimes steeped in wine prior to cooking.

In ancient party scenes on tomb walls, wine is seen being offered to the guests. In the tomb of Paheri, an elegant lady is shown presenting her empty cup to a servant and saying, "Give me eighteen more cups of wine - behold, I should love to drink to drunkenness, my inside is as dry as straw." It seems that a great deal of wine was consumed at banquets, because there are a number of images depicting the guests throwing up or being carried home because of their drunken state - drunkenness was seen as amusing to the ancient Egyptians! The king, as a pillar of respect, was supposed to drink only a certain prescribed amount of wine, and not drink to drunkenness. Almost all Egyptian medicines contained honey, wine, or milk.

Wine was occasionally given out as pay - the workmen of the Great Pyramids at Giza had four kinds of wine to drink, along with five kinds of beer. Wine was offered to the gods and the dead - the resurrected pharaoh was known as "one of the four gods who lives on figs and who drinks wine." Tutankhamen was buried with 40 jars of his favorite wine, //Irp ndm// ("sweet wine"), made from partly dried grapes. //Irp sma// ("blended wine") appears on labels found at Malqata. It is not certain whether the wine was of different years, vineyards, or types that were mixed. Different varieties of wine were also imported from Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, and Greece. In around 3150 B.C.E. one of Egypt's earliest rulers, King Scorpion I, was buried with seven hundred jars of wine, imported at great expense from the southern Levant. The ancient Romans, who had quite a lot of vineyards of their own, imported wines from Egypt. They considered the vineyards along the Canopic branch of the Nile to have some of the best wines.

Wine was a very important part of the festivals of deities, and temples had their own vineyards to ensure that the celebrants had enough wine for the rituals. Ramses III lists 513 vineyards belonging to the temple of Amun-Ra. White wine (//abesh//) was known as the Wine of Bast, and during her celebrations more wine was drunk than during all the rest of the year. The goddess Hathor was known as the "Mistress of Drunkenness," and vessels containing wine were often decorated with her image.

During the Festival of Sekhmet men and women “freed themselves of all unpleasant feelings, resentment, and repressed, angry passion” by drinking great quantities of red wine, which was known as the Wine of Sekhmet. Robert Masters, who has intensively studied the myths and rituals of ancient Egypt, believes that during the Festival of Sekhmet the Egyptians drank wine containing poppy seeds and plants from the //solanaceae// family, such as nightshade, jimsonweed, and wormwood for their hallucinatory effects.

There is hardly a temple devoid of images showing kings offering deities wine in rounded jars. Ramses III offered 152,094 jars of wine to various temples. Wine was considered a particularly special offering to any of the ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses. But it was Renenutet, 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.

Other wines mentioned in Egyptian texts were made from pomegranates, figs, plums, the fruits of the carob and Date Palm.


 * Quotes from the Book of the Dead and Other Sources:**

"The vineyard groans under the weight of bunches of grapes, it is bent down by its load. Their juice is more abundant than water in the river, their juice is flowing in greater qualities than sand. It is pressed for your storehouse, it is offered to your Ka. The juice of your grapes are the inundation of the green Eye of Horus."

The Drinks of Ancient Egypt