A Short History of Wine - Hardcover

Phillips, Rod

3.51

79 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0713994320 ISBN 13: 9780713994322

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2000

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This engaging book traces the history of wine in the Western world with all its attendant grandeurs and miseries. Through fascinating anecdotes and unexpected insights Phillips recreates each of the great eras of wine consumption, with their very different values and palates, and vividly conveys the sheer awfulness of much that has been drunk and enjoyed. The author takes the reader through the myriad tricks of the trade. Spanning the globe, from the Hunter Valley to the Rhine, from the NapaValley to Burgundy (and not excluding such unpromising regions as Peru and Ohio) A Short History of Wine is an astonishingly enjoyable guide to the social, cultural and economic worlds inside a bottle.

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Review:

"Glory, the grape, love, gold, in these are sunk The hopes of all men, and of every nation."

Byron never held back when it came to drinking deep of life and wine, and he recognised the passion for wine that was shaped by and shaped cultures. No other item in our diet can claim such a fascinating story. The journey from the vine to the glass is one of collaboration between humankind and nature, and any history is a history of that relationship and its tensions. The production of wine for thousands of years provokes the question, why make wine at all? Why do people drink wine? Why do they drink the wine they do in the quantities they do on the occasions they do? Rod Phillip's A Short History of Wine serves those serious about wine with a deep-bodied and robust history that sets out not only to describe but to explain the story of wine as a product, a commodity and an icon.

From the traces of its earliest use in ancient Mesopotamia, Phillips vividly portrays each age of viticulture and viniculture, his huge sweep never obscuring some of the more entertaining and enlightening aspects of its production and consumption. Wines, like people, are not created equal, and as such it has long been a marker of social distinctions, including class and gender as well as age and religion. As the story of wine spreads across nations and through time, Phillips masterfully draws together powerful cultural developments such as its prohibition by Muhammad, its spread by conquest and colonisation to the New Worlds, to decades of trouble due to blight, fraud, overproduction, Prohibition movements, two world wars, tariff barriers and economic depressions. Readers can savour how this remarkable story ends in the industry's present incarnation as a vast, multinational business. Phillips blends a knowledgeable historical sweep with primary sources and social commentary to create a fascinating narrative of the world inside a bottle.--Christine Buttery

Review:

"Rather than buy an expensive bottle, next time you have a thirst (for knowledge) consider buying this book instead" Colin Price Beech, Literary Review "A serious but unassuming little book - you'll be amused by it's lack of presumption." Iain Finlayson, The Times "...every page contains a nugget or two which astonishes." Andrew Jefford, Evening Standard

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