Wandering Vine: Wine, the Romans and Me

Nina Caplan's book explores the history and culture of wine, featuring people who make great wine due to their character, stubbornness, and sometimes craziness. She travels to different regions, drinking and learning about the past and herself.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 16 May 2019
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

WINNER OF THE FORTNUM & MASON FOOD AND DRINK AWARDS DEBUT DRINK BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019 - WINNER OF THE LOUIS ROEDERER INTERNATIONAL WINE BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2018 - 'Wine is alive, aging, and changing, but it's also a triumph over death. These grapes should rot. Instead, they ferment. What better magic potion could there be to convey us to the past?' - Impelled by a dual thirst for wine and 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, the 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.

Weight: 246g
Dimension: 129 x 197 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781472938459