The Story of Wine by Hugh Johnson

The Story of Wine is Hugh Johnson's history of wine from its beginnings to the present, in a revised edition.

Most wine histories read like a syllabus; this one reads like a narrative, which is why it has stayed on student reading lists for decades. The span runs from Noah to Napa by way of Pompeii, Prohibition and Pomerol, and the author follows the people and the money as closely as he follows the vines. Andrew Roberts, in his foreword, makes the point that it works as an adventure story, full of mystery and art, and is emphatically not dry academic history. This edition adds his own account of how far the wine world has shifted in thirty years.

Required reading for anyone studying wine formally, and just as good for the drinker who wants to know why the map looks the way it does. Long, but built from short chapters, so it reads well in pieces over a winter.