Reply #2: Great story -- here's some background on it

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I've been keeping an eye on how many "civilized" advances really go back to the early Neolithic -- and the story of early wine and beer-making is one of the more interesting. There's even a theory that farming and pottery-making were both prompted in part by a desire to regularize access to mind-altering substances.

Here's a piece on McGovern's researches in China:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-12/uop-9ho120204.php

And here's one about his earlier work on the domestication of grapes in Neolithic Turkey:
http://www.awasvancouver.com/winehistory.html