葡萄酒雖然不是起源自歐洲，但卻被歐洲人吸收、消化，歷經希臘、羅馬及法國人將葡萄酒培育成歐洲人的文化，並賦予它「神聖的意義」。它曾是古代醫生的神丹妙藥，具有神奇的藥效。由於葡萄酒製作與保存不易，它是早期社會統治階級的特權享受。時至今日，葡萄酒的發展是古人所難以想像的。光是葡萄品種已有數千種之多，再加之時間的因素，其種類、風味、價值等，更呈現出萬千風貌。閱讀西洋史，可能都曾聽過希臘哲學家亞里多德之名，及其偉大的事蹟；但是卻鮮少有人知道他是第一位總結了有關葡萄種植、改良葡萄酒品質的學術理論與技術的奠基者。我們也知道建立歐亞大陸帝國的亞歷山大大帝、被尊為「醫藥之父」的希波克拉底、羅馬的凱薩大帝、法蘭克的查理曼大帝、法國的太陽王一路易十四他們在歷史上的豐功偉業，但我們卻很少聽說他們與葡萄酒文化發展的關系及其重要性。本文試著將這重要的歐洲葡萄酒文化的歷史發展，作一系統化與理論化的論述，希望台灣讀者們能超越語言文字的障礙，透過日常生活中杯子裡的葡萄酒，直接開啓對歐洲文化的另一種認識。

Although wine does not originate from Europe, it has been absorbed actually by the Europeans. After the Greeks, Romans and the French have cultivated the grapes, wine grew to be an essential part of European culture, and it began to hear a "sacred" meaning. In ancient times, wine once was a marvelous medicine with mysterious medicinal virtues. Because of the difficulty of wine manufacture and preservation, it was the ruling class's privilege to enjoy wine in early days. Today, the development of wine is beyond the imagination of their ancestors, Grape can be divided into as many as thousand kinds. As time went on, the type, the flavor and the value of wine varies in numerous ways. Almost everyone hear the name of the Greek philosopher-Aristotle, and his great saga, but few know he was the founder who integrated academic theory with technology related to the cultivation of grape and the amelioration of wine. We all know the historical importance of Alexander the Great, the "father of the medicine"-Hippocrates, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, Louis XIV but we hear little about their important relation with the development of wine culture. This article is trying to theorize and systematize this important historical development of European wine culture. It hopes Taiwanese readers can transcend language barrier and get a good sight of European culture as a whole through their experiences in daily drinking.