The Story of Wine

When first published in 1989 The Story of Wine won every wine award in the UK and the USA. It is widely regarded as Hugh Johnson’s most ambitious and enthralling book, writing it, according to Hugh, was like trying to get ‘a quart into a liqueur glass’. It is not just one story but a collection of many, scanning the wine world from Noah to Napa, from Pompeii to Pomerol, as illuminating to our understanding of civilization as it is to our appreciation of wine.

Chronicling the making, merchandising and drinking of wine through millennia, this beautiful new edition is fully updated to include Johnson’s view of the evolution of wine over the past 30 years. As historian Andrew Roberts says in his foreword: “The genius of The Story of Wine derives from the fact that it is an adventure story, full of mysteries, art and culture.”