Godforsaken Grapes: A Slightly Tipsy Journey through the World of Strange, Obscure, and Underappreciated Wine

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There are nearly 1,400 known varieties of wine grapes in the worldfrom altesse to zierfandlerbut 80 percent of the wine we drink is made from only 20 grapes. InGodforsaken Grapes,Jason Wilson looks at how that came to be and embarks on a journey to discover what we miss. Stemming from his own growing obsession, Wilson moves far beyond the noble grapes, hunting down obscure and underappreciated wines from Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, France, Italy, the United States, and beyond. In the process, he looks at why these wines fell out of favor (or never gained it in the first place), what it means to be obscure, and how geopolitics, economics, and fashion have changed what we drink. A combination of travel memoir and epicurean adventure,Godforsaken Grapesis an entertaining love letter to wine.

Reviews

One of the Five Best Wine Books of the Year * The New York Times *
One of the Ten Best Books About Food of 2018 * Smithsonian Magazine *
Wilsons signature wit and wisdom returns as he recounts the travel shenanigans that lead him around the world in a rabbit hunt for these obscure and under-the-radar wines. Youll walk away with a better understanding of the wine industry and an itch to book a ticket to destinations youve never heard of before. * Imbibe Magazine *
Funny, enlightening [and] prodigiously researched. * San Francisco Chronicle *
Part travelogue and part journey to realize his own taste preferences, Wilson offers a spirited, highly personal argument for drinking more adventurously. * Punch *
Godforsaken Grapes will be sure to amuse the adventurous wine lover in your life, and perhaps also inspire them to raise a glass of Mondeuse Noire. * Vinous *
I cant decide whether Jason Wilsons Godforsaken Grapes is more edifying or more entertaining, with more wit or more wisdom. Either way, its a delightful dive into more esoteric grapes, and especially timely given that local importer/distributors have started bringing the likes of rkatsiteli and chasselas to this market. * Minneapolis Star-Tribune *
This wonderful book is about so much more than wine. It's also about taste, and aging, and history, and travel, and culture. Above all else, Jason Wilson's Godforsaken Grapes will make you want to live more adventurously and drink more curiouslyand never order another pinot noir again. -- Tom Bissell * author of Apostle and The Disaster Artist *
Armed with an archeologist's fanatical determination, a travelers deep curiosity, and an encyclopedic knowledge of his subject, Jason Wilson takes a deep dive into the world of rare wines. Original, obsessive, and wildly insightful. Drink it down! -- Andrew McCarthy * actor, director, and author of the New York Times Bestselling travel memoir The Longest Way Home *

Author Bio

Jason Wilson is the author of Boozehound: On the Trail of the Rare, the Obscure, and the Overrated in Spirits, and the series editor of The Best American Travel Writing since its inception in 2000. A regular contributor to the Washington Post, Wilson wrote an award-winning drinks column for years. Wilson has also been beer columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, dining critic for the Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Magazine, and has written for the New York Times, NewYorker.com, AFAR, National Geographic Traveler, and many other magazines and newspapers.