Based on the discovery of a 3,700 year old cellar in Tel Kabri, wine could have came from Israel. So how does it taste like? According to accounts - "medicinal" and "cinnamon" like, apparently.

A team from George Washington University uncovered 40 three foot-tall jars containing what was once wine. While the wine itself wasn't preserved, the results from the lab show organic residue that was likely made from fermented liquid made from grapes.

The reason why this is important is that this could be the oldest collection of fine wines ever found. Before this, they were thought to be the from Egypt, when it was found in the tomb of Pharoah Scorpion 1. It dates back around 3,000 B.C., but the problem here was that Egypt didn't have any naturally occurring grapes. Which meant that they had to have gotten their poison fix from somewhere else. Up north perhaps?
The scientists focused their efforts on fragments close to the base of the jars, which would have been in contact with the stored wine and absorbed some of it. They extracted the organic residues trapped in the pores and analyzed them chemically. Andrew Koh, an archaeological scientist at Brandeis University, said he discovered the telltale signature of tartaric acid, a key component in grapes. He also found traces of compounds which suggested that other ingredients could have been added to the wine, including honey, mint and herbs.
Read the rest of the story here. And as for the adage of older wine tastes better, this one surely didn't last. [WSJ]