Mapping the wine world
A classic guide from the 1970s changed the way we think about wine
How did we come to understand the world of wine? At first, and for thousands of years, the route to wine knowledge was through religion and myth. The gods Bacchus (of Ancient Rome) and Dionysus (of Greece) each explained wine as a glorious gift from the gods, transforming benign fruit into a delicious, transformative elixir of life.
Many religions bring wine into their central texts, including wine-making rituals. The Catholic Church placed the ...