Inventing Wine: A New History of One of the World's Most Ancient Pleasures
Because of the similarity of wine’s color to that of blood, the ancients regarded wine as sacred, a gift of the gods. Until the introduction of scientific management to winemaking, wine’s creation and manufacture continued to have an aura of mystery. Some batches turned out well; others spoiled or took on unpleasant aromas and flavors. Such unpredictability did not hinder a very early worldwide trade in good wine around the Mediterranean basin. Until Pasteur showed how yeasts fed on sugars and produced carbon dioxide and alcohol, only really experienced and adept vintners could forecast outcomes. In highly readable prose, Lukacs tells the story of winemaking’s worldwide history, recounting such ever-fascinating stories as the discovery of champagne and the creation of phenomenally unctuous and costly wines from what appear to be overripe, rotten grapes. And no history of wine would be complete without reference to America’s misguided rejection of wine in Prohibition. --Mark Knoblauch