Tasting the Past: The Science of Flavor and the Search for the Origins of Wine

Kevin Begos created a most unusual book about wines—a book for readers who are more than just sippers of wine but whose interests are more in-depth. In this, Begos is highly successful in Tasting the Past. Luckily for the readers, he is a journalist whose writing is superb—very entertaining and with an easy-to-read style. His basic tenet is searching out grape vines and wine regions that are out of the mainstream of wine making and finding the origins of the thousands of known grape vines. Most of the material in his book is derived from extensive travels and fieldwork. He covered just about all of the wine-growing regions of the world and his stories on each visit are fascinating. Begos wants to find the history of the vines of each region and in particular the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia, supposedly the mother of all wine grapes. He reviews comprehensive research that attempts to trace the origin of grapes through DNA analyses that reveal long-hidden vineyard ancestors, tracing some in hidden, remote parts of the worlds. Following many chapters, he includes in his “Tastings” a number of recommended wines from that region.