Fermenting knowledge: the history of winemaking, science and yeast research.

Wine has been with us since the dawn of civilization and has fol­ lowed humans and agri culture along diverse migration paths (Fig 1). Serendipity presumably played a part in its genesis more than 7,000 years ago: dam­ aged grapes spontaneously fermented in harvesting vessels; curious farmers tasted the resultant alcoholic beverage; the curious farmers liked what they tasted and enjoyed its effects; said farmers preferred fermented grape juice to the unfermented fruit. the fate of the grape was sealed. One might argue that the seeds of science and technology, particularly biotechnology, were also sown at this time. Empirical obser­ vations of natural events and processes were harnessed in repeat ‘experiments’—which is to say, vintages—and improvements were made by trialling modifications to practices, retaining those that were beneficial and discarding failures, with the results com­ municated down through the generations. at that time, there was no EMBO reports or alter native means by which to facilitate horizontal dissemination of information, but the principle of development—sans peer review—is clear: experimentation and invention lead to progress—technological and otherwise—and new knowledge is shared and built upon. Of course, early inventions and inno­ vations in grape and wine production were based on little or no knowledge of the biol­ ogy of grapevines or the microbes that drive fermentation. in fact, it would be several thousand years before it was even known that microscopic organisms exist: using a primitive microscope, antonie van Leeuwenhoek observed cells for the first time in 1680 (Fig 2).