WineLovers Discussion Group

White wine turns up in King Tutankhamen's tomb
USA Today

Musing on an age-old philosophical riddle, comedian Steve Martin once pondered "King Tut, how'd he get so funky," in a famed episode of Saturday Night Live.

Now we know. It was the wine. Fans of pinot blanc may be relieved to learn that an archaeology team has reported the first evidence of white wine in ancient Egypt. And it has turned up in the tomb of King Tutankhamen.

.... until now, all the wine, or more accurately its dried remnants found inside clay amphora within tombs, has been red. ... Until the study, the earliest reference to white wine in Egypt came from the Greek Athenaeus (170 — 230 AD) who praised wine from a region near Alexandria as white, pleasant, fragrant and "not likely to go to the head", among other qualities.

Full story in USA Today

Interesting.

And nice that it was an aromatic white rather than a heavy red.

Do you know what the status of a contemporary wine industry is in Egypt?

Wow! that's the 14th century BC! That was a long tiome ago. I wonder if the wine historians on the forum would care to enlighten us further.