The Story of Wine: From Noah to Now

by Hugh Johnson

Overview

• The ultimate history of wine by the master of the subject, an award-winning bestseller for decades now in a new edition;

• New foreword by historian Andrew Roberts

• Full of fascinating vignettes and side stories, a book to be read for hours or dipped into

• Beautifully produced in a new flexibound volume that makes it easy to read

“Who better to supply us with our first comprehensive historical survey than the wine writer with the magic pen, Hugh Johnson?” - Jancis Robinson MW

Hugh Johnson has led the literature of wine in many new directions over a 60-year career. His classic The Story of Wine is his most enthralling and enduring work, winner of every wine award in the UK and USA. It tells with wit, scholarship and humor how wine became the global phenomenon it is today, varying from mass-produced plonk to rare bottles fetching many thousands. It ranges from Noah to Napa, Pompeii to Prohibition to Pomerol, gripping, anecdotal, personal, controversial and fun. This new edition includes Hugh’s view on the changes wine has seen in the past 30 years. In his Foreword the celebrated historian Andrew Roberts writes: "The genius of The Story of Wine derives from the fact that it is emphatically not a dry-as-dust academic history – there are dozens of those – but an adventure story, full of mysteries, art and culture."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781913141066
Publisher:	Acc Publishing Group Ltd
Publication date:	11/12/2021
Pages:	496
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.60(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Hugh Johnson began acquiring his wine knowledge as a member of the Wine and Food Society at Cambridge University. When he came down from King's College in 1961 he became feature writer for Vogue and House & Garden, writing, among other things, wine columns for both magazines. In 1963 he became general secretary of the Wine and Food Society and succeeded the legendary gastronome André Simon as editor of Wine and Food. At the same time he became wine correspondent of The Sunday Times and started work on his first book Wine (1966), through which he established himself at the age of 27 as one of the subject's foremost writers. His rare talent for making the most complex subjects readable has led to a remarkable sequence of books. After a year as travel editor of The Sunday Times he became editor of Queen, and in 1969 James Mitchell of the newly founded publishing house Mitchell Beazley asked him to write The World Atlas of Wine. First published in 1971, this book has been translated into 14 languages and sold over four million copies. He is the world's bestselling wine writer. In 2007 Hugh Johnson received an OBE in the Queen's New Year's Honours list. His OBE was awarded for services to winemaking and horticulture. In April 2004 Hugh was honoured with the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite, one of the highest tributes bestowed by the French Government. The medal was presented to Hugh for his significant contribution to the appreciation and understanding of France and its wines.

Table of Contents

Foreword 7

Preface 11

Part 1

Chapter 1 The Power to Banish Care 18

Man's First Experience of Alcohol

Chapter 2 Where Grapes Were First Trodden 22

The Misty Origins of Wine

Chapter 3 The Pharaohs and their Wine 31

The Ancient Empires Master the Vine

Chapter 4 Greece: the Wine-Dark Sea 41

Dionysus and the First Theatre

Chapter 5 Drinking the God 53

Wine and Sea-trade Flourish Together

Chapter 6 De Re Rustica 65

Wine in Roman Italy

Chapter 7 Jewish Life and Christian Ritual 80

'Wine Makes Glad the Heart of Man'

Chapter 8 A Greener Country 86

Rome Expands - and Europe's Vineyards are Founded

Chapter 9 The Hope of Some Diviner Drink 102

Mohammed Condemns Wine

Part 2

Chapter 10 Inheritors of the Empire 114

Charlemagne and the Rebirth of Europe's Vineyards

Chapter 11 Making and Tasting Medieval Wine 125

Vineyard and Cellar Skills are Refined

Chapter 12 The Cloister and the Press 132

The Monks' Superlative Burgundy

Chapter 13 England and Gascony: the Birth of Claret 141

When the English Owned Bordeaux

Chapter 14 Merchants of Venice 154

Trade in the Rich Wines of the Mediterranean

Chapter 15 Castilian Conquest 163

Further Frontiers in Spain and the New World

Chapter 16 'Good Store of Fertile Sherris' 172

Sack, the Wine of Falstaff and Drake

Chapter 17 The Beverage Revolution 179

New Rivals to the Vine

Chapter 18 Waggoners of the Sea 186

The Dutch and the Growing Wine Trade

Chapter 19 Jug and Bottle 193

Great Steps in the Technology of Glassmaking

Part 3

Chapter 20 Bordeaux Reborn 202

The First Chateaux Wines and their Markets

Chapter 21 The First Perfectionist 212

Dom Pérignon and the Refinement of Champagne

Chapter 22 Anything But Port 222

The Accidental Birth of a Classic

Chapter 23 Tokaji Essence 232

Great Wine from Europe's Furthest Frontier

Chapter 24 Groot Constantia 238

A Short-lived Wonder from the Cape

Chapter 25 Island of the Immortals 245

Madeira's Masochist Wine

Chapter 26 Le Grand Theatre 254

The Age of Confidence in Bordeaux

Chapter 27 Mapping the Cote 270

Burgundy - the Pattern is Established

Chapter 28 Paris Cabaret 281

Taxes Distort the Wine Map of the Ancien Régime

Chapter 29 Cabinet Wine 288

Germany Discovers Riesling

Chapter 30 Three-bottle Men 297

Connoisseurship in Georgian England

Part 4

Chapter 31 Revolution and After 310

Napoleon's Wars Herald a New Age

Chapter 32 Bodegas and Lodges 320

The Rise of Sherry - and Port's Response

Chapter 33 Méthode Champenoise 332

Champagne Profits from the Booming 19th Century

Chapter 34 John Bull's Vineyard 343

Australia - Discovery and Development

Chapter 35 East Coast, West Coast 354

Spanish and Anglo-Saxon Traditions Merge in America

Chapter 36 The Golden Age 373

Bordeaux and Burgundy at the Height of their Powers

Chapter 37 Zollverein 388

Germany's Unification Widens the Horizon

Chapter 38 When Sorrows Come 400

Oidium and Phylloxera Devastate Europe

Chapter 39 Risorgimento 413

Wine and Politics in 19th-century Italy

Chapter 40 Hispanic Revival 424

Spain and South America in the 19th Century

Part 5

Chapter 41 Fifty Years of Crisis 436

War, Slump, Poor Weather and Prohibition

Chapter 42 The New World Challenges 449

The Dramatic Renaissance of California and Australia

Chapter 43 The Old World Responds 459

Tradition, Technology and the Search for Market Identity

Bibliography 466

Index 476

Acknowledgements 495