If you think a wine book has no room on a beer blog then you will be happier with the other book review today. For those who want to see what I learned about the history of one our alcoholic brethren, then continue on.
Paul Lukacs takes us from the start of wine up to some recent history in “Inventing Wine”. And the first and most often reiterated point is that wine has been bad longer than it has been good. He goes through a laundry list of words to describe non-modern wine. Tart, spoiled, oxidized, thin, shrill and swill are just a few.
Another takeaway is that only since the mid 19th century did wine become associated with restaurants. And since then it has been out of vogue even there for stretches of time. Which leads me to hope that one day, future restaurants will have impressive lists of wine, spirits and beer simultaneously.
The other fascinating trend is the rise of as Lukacs calls them, “flamboyant” wines. Big fruity wines that took the wine world by storm and threaten to make lighter varietals obsolete. Seems like an obvious comparison to hyper IPAs. One prominent wine critic echoes statements that I have made about “big” beers. “I have a powerful aversion to wines that gush and scream”, Terry Thiese says.
This book does get a little repetitive at times and does quickly jet over recent history but will bring to many beer fans minds parallels to our industry.
Including this quote about preserving a history of wine making that wasn’t good, “…everyone enjoys fairy tales-if it did not also stifle inventiveness and suppress improvement…”