Introduction
If we look at wine as a chemist would we see a glass of clear usually colored liquid. A solution of chemicals. Complex is the mixture of the chemicals found in wine but chemicals they are. Nothing more, nothing less! Certainly wine chemicals are formed by and derived from living systems, grapes, yeast, bacteria, wood, corks, molds, etc. and in that sense they are natural products. The field of science dedicated to the study of chemicals from living systems is called Natural Products Chemistry, however, that doesn't mean that wine is "natural" in the sense that it can be produced without human technology. Wine is a technological product of man and its unique nature derives from that technology. Its sensory properties are the direct result of the technology that produces it. A knowledgeable wine drinker can recognize the technology that produced the wine by simply observing its sensory properties.

Viticulture
We can learn a lot about the nature of pre Hellenic viticulture from a painting on a Greek vase called an amphora made in 550 BC. It shows the way grapes were grown in ancient Greece and probably in much of the Mediterranean. Notice that grape vines shown here were very large vines supported on trees producing with many clusters (the large clusters is certainly an exaggeration). Grown like this the grape juice would have a very high acid content and a very low sugar content. However, still today there is a wine produced in Portugal from grapes grown on high trellises. Called Vinho Verde, this wine has a high acidity and a taste that evokes images of the ancient wines of the Mediterranean.

Fermentation
We can learn a lot about the nature of pre Hellenic enology from another painting from a black figure vase made about 550 BC. Instead of peasants this picture shows satyrs harvesting, crushing, and decanting: the technological processes that convert grapes to must, must to wine and wine to amphora's. Amphora's that can be bought and sold, stored and exported, taxed and stolen. The stuff that feeds commerce and fuels civilization. All the technology needed to make a stable, safe and portable product are clearly shown on the vase. The vinification process begins in a treading basket on a platform with a trough and spout to collect the juices as it filters through the basket and delivers it to the most important technology of the time: the amphora.

The Role of the Amphora
Imagine grapes covered with microorganism, insect fragments, rodent hairs, and bird droppings being trod by a large unwashed human with a runny nose, perhaps a touch of diarrhea or some other diseased effluvia dribbling into the crushing grapes. But then magic happens. For once the juice is placed in the amphora and begins to ferment all pathogenic organisms die, killed by acid released from vacuoles in the grapes and the alcohol produced during the fermentation. What ever else happens, no matter what other benefits the wine will bring (nutritional or narcotic), it will always be safe to drink; often safer than the water in the brook or the city cisterns or even the wells on the farms. ... etc.