Afterword

Back to the source, even further to the East…

Why not?

In two years, we have travelled from East to West, from the Middle East to Europe, but alas we hardly managed to see it all. Today, apart from Japan, our native country, we miss not visiting large parts of Asia (and the New World). Why should we not go on a second tour of Europe, a bit further this time?

Currently, there are plenty more people who are making wine in amphorae. Perhaps twice as many as we have met in our journeys. It would be interesting to see what they have been doing. We already know for a fact that the oldest potteries were discovered in the Far East, in what we call Nippon. The Jomon period (15,000 – 300 BC) is named after “Cord Marked Pottery“ as a term devised by Edward S. Morse. The Japanese practiced pottery making, all over that long and distant period. Moving on to the Yama-Budo period (literally “mountain grapes», or under its official name “vitis coignetiae“ in other words “vine from Japan“). It could well be that the first wine “was made“ during that period (we dare not say “vinified“) had it slipped our ancestors that their harvested grapes were in fact stored in pottery!

Whilst unlikely, it cannot, however, be denied as is often the case! Anyhow, it would not make sense to speak of the cradle of wine without proof; as always, the truth lies elsewhere!

keiko & maika