Godforsaken Grapes: A Slightly Tipsy Journey through the World of Strange, Obscure, and Underappreciated Wine

by Jason Wilson

Overview

There are nearly 1,400 known varieties of wine grapes in the world—from altesse to zierfandler—but 80 percent of the wine we drink is made from only 20 grapes. In Godforsaken Grapes, award-winning travel writer Jason Wilson looks at how that came to be and embarks on a journey to discover what we miss.

Stemming from his own growing obsession, Jason Wilson moves far beyond the “noble grapes,” hunting down obscure and underappreciated wines from Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, France, Italy, the United States, and beyond. In the process, he looks at why these wines fell out of favor (or never gained it in the first place), what it means to be obscure, and how geopolitics, economics, and fashion have changed what we drink.

A combination of travel memoir and epicurean adventure, Godforsaken Grapes is an entertaining love letter to wine.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419735127
Publisher:	Abrams Press
Publication date:	04/09/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	1,081,342
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jason Wilson is an award-winning journalist and the author of Boozehound and Godforsaken Grapes. The series editor for Best American Travel Writing since its inception in 2000, Wilson has also written for the Washington Post, the New York Times, The New Yorker, and many others. He lives in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Table of Contents

I The Vines in the Sky

Chapter 1 Dangerous Grapes 10

Chapter 2 Chateau du Blah Blah Blah 19

Chapter 3 Wins and Dada 52

Chapter 4 Alpine Wines 65

Chapter 5 Is Prosecco a Place or a Grape? 86

Chapter 6 When Wine Talk Gets Weird 108

II Travels in the Lost Empire of Wine

Chapter 7 Wines with Umlauts 132

Chapter 8 The Meaning of Groo-Vee 156

Chapter 9 Blue Frank and Dr. Zweigelt 173

Chapter 10 Gray Pinot, Blueberry Risotto, and Orange Wine 192

III Selling Obscurity

Chapter 11 Waiting for Bastardo 212

Chapter 12 The Same Port Dick Cheney Likes 226

Chapter 13 Pouring the Unicorn Wine 241

Chapter 14 Looking Forward, Looking Eastward 265

Chapter 15 How Big Is Your Pigeon Tower? 285

Appendix: Gazetteer of Godforsaken Grapes 296

Acknowledgments 308

Index 309

Editorial Reviews

Godforsaken Grapes will be sure to amuse the adventurous wine lover in your life, and perhaps also inspire them to raise a glass of Mondeuse Noire.

Vinous

"This wonderful book is about so much more than wine. It's also about taste, and aging, and history, and travel, and culture. Above all else, Jason Wilson's Godforsaken Grapes will make you want to live more adventurously and drink more curiously—and never order another pinot noir again."

author of Apostle and The Disaster Artist - Tom Bissell

"One of the Ten Best Books About Food of 2018"

Smithsonian Magazine

"One of the Five Best Wine Books of the Year"

The New York Times

I can’t decide whether Jason Wilson’s Godforsaken Grapes is more edifying or more entertaining, with more wit or more wisdom. Either way, it’s a delightful dive into more esoteric grapes, and especially timely given that local importer/distributors have started bringing the likes of rkatsiteli and chasselas to this market.

Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"Armed with an archeologist's fanatical determination, a traveler’s deep curiosity, and an encyclopedic knowledge of his subject, Jason Wilson takes a deep dive into the world of rare wines. Original, obsessive, and wildly insightful. Drink it down!"

actor, director, and author of the New York Times Bestselling travel memoir The Longest Way Home - Andrew McCarthy

"Wilson’s signature wit and wisdom returns as he recounts the travel shenanigans that lead him around the world in a rabbit hunt for these obscure and under-the-radar wines. You’ll walk away with a better understanding of the wine industry and an itch to book a ticket to destinations you’ve never heard of before."

Imbibe Magazine

Part travelogue and part journey to realize his own taste preferences, Wilson offers a spirited, highly personal argument for drinking more adventurously.

Punch

Funny, enlightening [and] prodigiously researched.

San Francisco Chronicle

Funny, enlightening [and] prodigiously researched.

San Francisco Chronicle

"One of the Five Best Wine Books of the Year"

The New York Times