Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented grapes or other fruits. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, water, or other nutrients.[1] Yeast consumes the sugars in the grapes and converts them into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts produce different styles of wine. The well-known variations result from the very complex interactions between the biochemical development of the fruit, reactions involved in fermentation, terroir and subsequent appellation, along with human intervention in the overall process.
Wine has been consumed for its intoxicating effects throughout history and the psychoactive effects are evident at normal serving sizes.[2][3]
Wines made from produce besides grapes include rice wine, pomegranate wine, apple wine and elderberry wine and are generically called fruit wine.
Wine has been produced for thousands of years, with the earliest wines being drunk c. 6000 BC in Georgia.[4][5][6] It had reached the Balkans by c. 4500 BC and was consumed and celebrated in ancient Greece and Rome.
Wine has played an important role in religion. Red wine was associated with blood by the ancient Egyptians[7] and was used by both the Greek cult of Dionysus and the Romans in their Bacchanalia; Judaism also incorporates it in the Kiddush and Christianity in the Eucharist.