对于一些人来说，“葡萄酒”这个概念多少带着一点神秘的色彩。葡萄酒的足迹遍及全世界的很多国家。在一些国家，葡萄酒甚至比饮用水更畅销！但是，对于一些人来说，要认识葡萄酒依旧是个难题。

　　For some, the word“wine”has a mysterious quality to it: And yet, it is so widely available with much of it being made in most of the countries in the world. In some countries, it even outstrips water consumption! Still, wine seems to be one of those topics that some can’t quite comprehend.

　　那么，让我们讨论一下葡萄酒的定义。

　　First, let’s discuss the definition of wine:

　　通常来说，“Wine”这个词可以指任何一种由水果发酵的含酒精的饮料，这些水果包括苹果，橘子，还有浆果等。但从20世纪以来，“Wine”这个词已经狭义为“用葡萄发酵得到的酒精饮品”。

　　Generally, the term“Wine”refers to any beverage that contains alcohol fermented from any fruit, such as apple, orange, and berries. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the meaning has been narrowed down to“the alcoholic beverage made from grapes”.

　　尽管中国早在公元前1200年就有有关从丝绸之路引进葡萄酒的的记载。但是，“葡萄酒”这个词在中国被曲解了。假设你去餐馆吃饭，问服务员要一份“酒水单”，但实际上到手的是一份所有含酒精饮品的单子。今天，中国对葡萄酒的认知也随着中国加入世贸组织步伐而加速。中国政府也在葡萄酒产业的很多方面进一步严格法规来定义葡萄酒。以前，只要在瓶内葡萄汁的含量达到50%就可以叫葡萄酒了。现在，有明确的法令规定如果名字叫“葡萄酒”，那么葡萄汁的含量必须达到100%。

　　Although wine has been recorded in China as early as 1200BC from the Silk Road. This has lead to some misconceptions about the word“wine”. In the early 1900s, the English word“wine”was mistranslated to Chinese as“any alcoholic drink”. For example, if you were in a restaurant and asked for the“Wine List”, you actually received a list of all the different alcohols available. Today, we can see that Chinese appreciation for wine is growing. With the entrance of China in to the WTO, the government has also made steps in various aspects of the wine industry in creating regulations to better define wine. Previously, to be labeled a“wine”in China, you were only required to have 50% of what’s in the bottle come from grapes. Now, regulations require that to be called a“wine”or“pu tao jiu”, the contents must come from 100% grapes.

　　葡萄酒的历史

　　早在公元6000到7000年之前，在中东的诺曼底人(nomadic peoples)就很有可能用野生的葡萄和浆果进行酿酒了。在稳定下来之后，葡萄，橄榄，无花果成为了人类第一批人工栽培的野生水果。关于种植vinus vinifera，也就是用于酿酒葡萄的葡萄属，早在公元前4000年的时候就已经在埃及出现了；而且在公元前6000年的时候，原始的葡萄园在近东也已出现了。但是有一点是肯定的，葡萄栽培(关于葡萄株生长种植的研究)的起源地是地中海东部即高加索地区。该地区在古埃及法老的时候就广泛种植葡萄植株了。

　　It is likely that nomadic peoples in the Middle East were fermenting wild grapes and berries into wine as early as 6000 to 7000 years ago. With the transition to a settled existence, grapevines, along with olives and figs, became the first wild fruits to be cultivated by man. The existence of vinus vinifera (the nomenclature for the family of grapes that are used to make wine) plantations can be conclusively proved only from the 4th millennium B.C. in Egypt and there were rudimentary vineyards in the near East as early as the 6th millennium B.C. What is certain is that the cradle of viticulture (the study of grape vine growing) was the eastern Mediterranean or the Caucasus, and that it first began to flourish during the Pharaohs of Egypt.

　　尼罗河三角洲同样也见证了葡萄酒贸易的蓬勃发展。很多的现代经济的形式包括现金交易，合同的签定，还有付款体系等都是源自于法老时期的葡萄酒交易，这是很多历史学家的共识。

　　The Nile Delta also witnessed the first flowering of the wine trade. There is a common view among historians that the foundations of our modern economy including money, contracts, payment system etc were developed as a result of the wine trade from the time of the Pharaohs.

　　古希腊是在古代被葡萄酒所征服的另外一个国家。可能葡萄的栽培技术是从小亚细亚，或色累斯传入希腊的。在公元前2000年的下半叶，葡萄酒已经成为了古希腊文化中的重要组成部分。希腊人十分珍视葡萄酒，他们认为葡萄酒是上天所赐的宝物。

　　Ancient Greece was the next stage in the vine’s conquest of the ancient world. It is also possible that viticultural knowledge reached Greece via Asia Minor or Thrace. Then, wine became an important part of Greek culture in the second half of the 2nd millennium B.C. Wine was so important to the Greeks that they declared it as a divine gift.