The future of a very old industry

Do a quick Google search, and you will discover that wine is one of the oldest industries on earth. A 2017 study by a team of archeologists found evidence of wine-making in Tbilisi, Georgia almost 8 000 years ago.

To put that in perspective, it is almost 2 000 years before humans domesticated horses, 2 600 years before we invented writing and 3 300 years before we built the first pyramid. What is more, Georgian winemakers today use largely the same tools and methods as their ancestors eight millennia ago.

Hein Koegelenberg is CEO of La Motte Wine Estate, where the French Huguenot Gabriel du Toit planted the first vines in 1752. Why, I asked Koegelenberg, do we associate wine with timelessness? “Much of wine’s romance lies in its age. Wine is predominantly vintage-specific. Each year has a unique character depending on the growing conditions. This sense of history, together with the fact that it is somewhat unpredictable, add to the mystique.”