Scientific dating places the production of alcohol, which originated in China in 7000 B.C., when farmers were concocting a brew of rice, grapes, hawthorn berries, and honey in clay jars. Sipping rice wine is still popular among many today such as film star Robert Deniro.

Pharoahs were buried with miniature breweries for the afterlife, and in the poem Beowulf, there is mention of mead, an alcoholic beverage made from honey, but evidence of alcohol’s consumption precedes the written word.

Grapes were one of the earliest fruits to be domesticated, so it is no surprise that their fermentation was...