The Daily Mail has published an article by Rachael Bunyan, which says that grapes used to make popular French, Italian and Spanish wines may not be from Europe but instead from the "western Asian" country of Georgia.

After analysing 204 genomes of the common grape vine, Italian scientists came to the conclusion that the evidence suggests a single domestication which may have occurred in Western Asia,” the article reads.

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

Bunyan notes that the grapes were dispersed from West Asia to Europe in a move driven by human migration and maritime trade.

Georgia has boasted that it has been making wine for 8,000 years – longer than any other nation – since archaeologists found traces of wine residue in ancient clay vessels”, the article states.

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

Read the full article here.

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