WINE-NECTAR OF THE GODS
Wine, such an important beverage that has been at the side of men along history.
Well known and appreciated nowadays around the world, wine has not always been a drink that everybody could reach. In the ancient Egypt, where they were governed by the mandates of several gods, Osiris among them, that requested the elaboration of wine as the way of helping men to meet the deities and therefore its consumption was preserved for kings, nobles or priests and its use was designated to worship and religious rituals. In the Greek mythology it was named nectar of the gods and in fact, Greek god Dionisos ( that we may know as Bacchus) is credited with the discovering of the vine and the elaboration of wine. And if we take a look at the Christian religion, bread and wine are converted into the body and blood of Christ…in memorial Sacrament.
The consumption of grapes dates back to the ancient times and there exists data of their cultivation 7000 years before Christ and the earliest evidence of the drink is reported from 3500 years before Christ. Although the introduction of the vine plant in Hispania dates from the Phoenician era ( around 1100 B.C.), we must thank the Roman culture for the elaboration of wine in the Iberian Peninsula.
After all this, we make our own this Egyptian proverb that says lots about this exceptional beverage: “ In the water you can see the reflection of your face but in the wine will always emerge your best virtue”
Image: "The Triumph of Bacchus" - Velázquez