““North and Central America have thirty species of Vitis; China has another thirty. But Eurasia has only V. vinifera. And Eurasia is where wine was born. From Chardonnay to Pinot Noir, Syrah to Viognier, all wine—no matter what the label says, what color it is, or where it comes from—is made from the same species of grape, probably originating somewhere in the Transcaucasian Highland connecting the Black and Caspian Seas, in what’s now the country Georgia, and then spreading south to the Fertile Crescent and Egypt.””
