Inventing Wine

"Rather than an eternal cultural verity, wine is the product of innovative discontinuities, according to this flavorful history.... [Lukacs's] absorbing treatise shows just how much the grape's bounty owes to human ingenuity and imagination." -- Publishers Weekly
"Noted American oenophile Lukacs tells the story of wine over eight millenniums and around the globe. Themes of interest to oenophiles, from wine's longtime disrepute in North America to England's love affair with Bordeaux, and fascinating details-for instance, the unearthing of 26 casks of wine in King Tut's tomb-heighten the pleasure of this engrossing narrative. A richly readable and authoritative addition to the literature of wine." -- Kirkus Reviews
"In highly readable prose, Lukacs tells the story of winemaking's worldwide history, recounting such ever-fascinating stories as the discovery of champagne and the creation of phenomenally unctuous and costly wines from what appear to be overripe, rotten grapes." -- Booklist
"Just when it seemed that there was nothing new to be said about wine, Paul Lukacs tells an intriguing and original tale that is thoroughly enjoyable reading." -- Mark Kurlansky, author of Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man and Salt: A World History
"Inventing Wine makes us grateful as wine lovers that we are living in the second golden age of wine, when the quality and choices far exceed anything possible before." -- Paul Jameson - New York Journal of Books
"Paul Lukacs's Inventing Wine focuses on how the perception of wine has changed over time, through wars, revolution, prosperity and deprivation. ... Inventing Wine is broader and more ambitious in scope than his previous books, looking at how wine and Western civilization grew up together." -- Dave McIntyre - Washington Post