China’s Fermented Past: Pottery yields signs of oldest known wine

Here’s a discovery worth toasting: Chemical analyses of pottery fragments from a prehistoric village in northern China indicate that people living there between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago concocted a fermented, winelike drink from rice, honey, and fruit.

JARRING FINDS. A 3,000-year-old Chinese bronze jar (left) was found to still contain a rice or millet wine.