Never let it be said that wine writing does not have a history. "Greek and Roman wine drinkers were aware of variations in taste and they translated them into taste preferences. A number of scholars produced lists of wines with commentaries on each one. Perhaps the likes of Pliny the elder were the Robert Parkers of the ancient world, awarding Caecuban wine XCVI marks and Fallerian wine XC marks out of C, guiding drinkers towards certain vintages, and perhaps contributing to the development of taste preferences."
Rod Phillips is musing on the past and relating it to the present, but doing so with an acute and scholarly understanding of the ancient world, which is not surprising as he is Professor of History at Carleton University in Ottawa. He is also the author of A Short History of Wine, a lucid, engaging and informative speed-wheel through wine's back pages.
Now, before you stifle a yawn and wonder if the world really needs another history of wine, let me say this 332-page tome manages to compress wine's colourful and eventful history into a series of easily digestible pieces. With an expertise in historical analysis, a puckish humour and a clear love of his subject, Phillips is ideally suited to telling the story of wine in the context of the development of society.
As he writes when he sets out his stall in the introduction: "A Short History of Wine sets not only to describe but also to explain the story of wine as a product, a commodity and an icon. Wine, we shall see, has rarely been thought of and written on in neutral terms, for in its very essence it is marked by dualities. The tension implicit in the debate as to whether wine is a product of nature or society underlies its more general history as one of paradoxes.
Wine is consumed by the destitute and the homeless and by the powerful and the wealthy. Wine can be bought very inexpensively or at fabulous prices that only the very rich can afford. Wine has been called a gift of God and the work of Satan. It is a sign of civility and sophistication and a threat to social order. It is part of a healthy diet and it kills. It is this very complexity that makes the history of wine so compelling."
Equally, it must be said, it is Phillips's overview of wine and the way it has affected society through the ages which makes this book so compelling. He begins about 7,000 years ago, leaning heavily on the evidence of archaeologists to seek a time when the first wine was produced. He cites the Fertile Crescent: the slopes of the Caucasus Mountains between the Black and the Caspian Seas, the Taurus Mountains of eastern Turkey and the northern section of the Zagros Mountains of western Iran. It is possible, he says, that vines were being cultivated there as early as 6,000 BC.
From there his search moves to Egypt where, apparently, wine achieved a key role in society. As would be the case down through the ages, it was the rich and powerful who drank the best. "The upper classes of ancient Egypt were not alone in their self-conscious adoption of wine as a beverage to be consumed only by the Gods and great men and women. In this respect the passage of wine from Egypt to ancient Greece represented more than a voyage across water and through time: it was a passage from one culture where wine was monopolised by the few to one where it was embraced by many."
The Greeks, and later the Romans, took to wine with a will. They developed new skills such as those of the vine-dressers who knew when to prune the plants, and they began to grow vines on trellises and stakes, abandoning the old style of growing them on trees. And they also spread the message across the then known world, instilling the importance of wine in the classical world's religious, medical, cultural, social and economic arenas.
The impact of early Christianity on the flourishing wine industry was substantial. The church required a constant supply of wine for its services and it could best ensure that supply by making the wine itself. Thus, many church-owned vineyards were set up, though it was the creative skills of the monks which made a more lasting impact. This was particularly true of the Cistercians. In the 12th century they developed the concept of the cru, or growth and they also realised that certain sections of a vineyard produced wines that had definable qualities and tastes, distinctive characteristics that remained constant from one vintage to the next.
But the church frowned on excess drinking, particularly from its own clergy. "In 847, the council of Prelates decreed that any person in religious orders who habitually drank to the point of drunkenness should do 40 days' penance - which in this case meant abstaining from fat, beer and wine."
The church was also instrumental in creating the famed Rhone wines of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. In the early 14th century, when two Popes competed for the leadership of the Catholic Church, one held court in Avignon. "This created a new demand for wine in the Rhone Valley, not so much because of sacramental requirements as because the establishment of the alternative Papal residence was accompanied by a huge bureaucracy of prelates and officials, all of whom drank wine." A current comparison could possibly be made with the European summits.
Around this time, the wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy began to rise. But though the value of good wine was increasingly realised, the ways in which wine was stored and transported were still primitive and wine often went bad - which led to all manner of dodgy behaviour by merchants who, rather than lose their investment when the wine turned to vinegar, "were tempted to mix bad wine with good rather than pour their investment away".
This led Geoffrey Chaucer to have the Pardoner state in The Canterbury Tales:
"Keep clear of wine, I tell you, white or red,/
Especially Spanish wines which they provide/
And have on sale in Fish Street and Cheapside.
That wine mysteriously finds its way/
To mix with others - shall we say/
Spontaneously? - that grow in neighbouring regions.
Phillips is also very strong on the development of the wine trade and the role of the Dutch merchant class in changing the styles of wines that were being made, particularly in Bordeaux. The British enjoyed the light Claret style, but the Dutch preferred darker, richer wines. Dutch-inspired measures increased the stability and durability of the product.
However, while he covers all the major technical breakthroughs, he shies away from tunnelling too deeply into the technical area. His strength is his understanding of society and wine's role in shaping it, and vice versa.
With a sweeping, confident hand, he covers the impact of the many wars, epidemics, political upheavals and general social change, including the more well known territory of the classifications of the French wine area and relatively modern events such as Prohibition in the US. Perhaps more detail would have been welcome in certain cases, but generally this highly readable, informative and knowledgeable book will serve all well who seek to know a little more about the magical contents of that glass in their hand.
A Short History of Wine by Rod Phillips. Penguin £20 in UK.