The Daily Mail ran an article by Rachael Bunyan, which says the grapes used to make popular French, Italian and Spanish wines may not have come from Europe but rather from the “West Asian” country of Georgia.

After analyzing 204 genomes of the common vine, the Italian scientists came to the conclusion that the evidence suggests a single domestication that may have taken place in West Asia, ”the article read.

Rachael Bunyan quotes The Times, which reports that grapes used in wines such as Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir appeared during the aforementioned domestication process.

Bunyan notes that the grapes were dispersed from West Asia to Europe as part of human migration and maritime trade.

Georgia boasts of producing wine for 8,000 years – longer than any other nation – since archaeologists found traces of wine residue in ancient clay vessels, ”the article said.

The Daily Mail also reports that ceramic pottery fragments from two sites about 30 miles south of the Georgian capital Tbilisi contained residue which gave chemical signatures to grapes and wine.

Read the full article here.