WINNER OF THE LOUIS ROEDERER INTERNATIONAL WINE BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD
2018
LONGLISTED FOR THE BIG BOOK PRIZE 2018
**
An enchanting journey into European culture and civilization through our
shared love of wine.**
Impelled by a dual thirst, for wine and for knowledge, Nina Caplan
follows the vine into the past, wandering from Champagne's ancient chalk
to the mountains of Campania, via the crumbling Roman ruins that flank
the river Rhône, and the remote slopes of Priorat in Catalonia. She
meets people whose character, stubbornness, and sometimes, borderline
craziness makes their wine great: an intrepid Englishman planting on
rabbit-infested Downs, a glamorous eagle-chasing Spaniard, and an
Italian lawyer obsessed with reviving Falernian, legendary wine of the
Romans. In the course of her travels, she drinks a lot and learns a lot:
about dead conquerors and living wines, forgotten zealots, and--in vino
veritas, as Pliny said--about herself.
In this lyrical and charming book, Nina Caplan drinks in order to
remember and travels in order to understand the meaning of home. This is
narrative travel writing at its best.