What Fermented First—Beer or Wine?

As a sommelier I naturally think grapes fermented first before grains.  But, what was fermented first often strikes arguments amongst beverage geeks.  It is a lot like the chicken and egg argument—I think the chicken came first—single celled organisms had to split and split and split enough times to become chickens—then they could lay eggs.  Origins of each may be traced to the Neolithic period in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and Egypt.

I think of primitive man with club in hand, spending half the day making fire, living in cave-like dwelling.  They gather the good-looking grapes from vines into a carved out wood like bowl.  They forget about it leaving it in the sun.  Several weeks later they find it and it is now a delicious liquid.  They naturally want to drink more and more.  Deductively speaking, animals are naturally attracted to the sweet colorful fruit—not grains—as the honey bees are attracted to beautiful flowers.

Grains have to be soaked in water and processed to ferment.  Before man figured out how to make bread, they procured grains, added water, and a porridge like substance resulted.  Let porridge like substance sit out in sun to ferment with water and—beer!  Primitively speaking, beer has a few more steps involved.  Some will argue that grains are a more evolved and complex plant then grapes, and in nature, might have fermented first, but I will argue man fermented wine first.

Investigations to Come...