Vintage: The Story of WinePublisher description -- In this enthralling book, Hugh Johnson tells how wine--that most symbolic and subtle joint product of man and nature--runs as a thread through our history. He provides for the first time the cultural perspective that enables us to understand the wine world we know today, and he tells an absorbing and very human story. In 8,000 years, wine has been refined and developed into one of the foremost products of civilization. The wines we drink and appreciate today are the direct product of this story. Great wines have their roots in the customs, traditions and history of their home ground. Hugh Johnson shows how the particularly special wines of the world have been honed and refined. He poses and answers the key question: Why have some places, and some people, made great wine, and what in the history of process explains the difference between the great and the merely good? |
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18th century Abbey amphora ancient barrels Beaune became best wine Bordeaux bottle bought brandy British Burgundy Cabernet Cádiz California called cellar champagne Château Cistercians claret coast colour cork Côte Côte d'Or Côte de Nuits Dionysus Dom Pérignon Douro drank drink drunk Duke Dutch east Emperor Empire England English Epernay Europe export famous fermentation first-growths flavour France French German glass grapes Greek growers growing Haut-Brion island Italian Italy Jerez juice King known land later London Madeira Malmsey medieval Mediterranean Médoc merchants Middle Ages monasteries Moselle northern Paris perhaps Pérignon phylloxera Pinot Pinot Noir planted Pontac port Portugal Portuguese produce red wine region Reims Rheingau Rhine Riesling Rioja river Roman Rome sack seems sherry ships soil sold Spain Spanish St-Emilion sugar taste took town trade valley Venice vines vineyards vintage white wines wine-growing winemaking