A graphic history of wine, from ancient times to today
The history of wine is nothing less than the history of civilisation. It is the religious drink par excellence — from the Ancient Greek god of wine, Dionysus, via the vineyard Noah planted after the Flood in the Old Testament, to Christ’s miracle at Cana. In the monasteries and churches of the Middle Ages, the syrupy drink of antiquity, unpalatable if undiluted, was transformed into the wine we know and love today.
Oenophile Benoist Simmat and artist Daniel Casanave tell the story of wine from its origins in the Mediterranean to the globalised industry of the 21st century. Tracing the innovations that have accompanied this ancient art and science, from oak-barrel ageing to the invention of the bottle, Wine: A Graphic History will leave readers with a fresh and full-bodied view of our own drinking culture
Written by: Benoist Simmat
Art: Daniel Casanave
Publisher : SelfMadeHero e
Print release date: 13 May 2020
Format: 17cm x 27cm
ISBN: 978-2711201563
Wine: A Graphic History (English edition)
Newly translated, this French comic holds our hand tightly as it walks us through the histories of great wine making civilisations and the evolution of the process of producing wine around the world.
For neophyte oenophiles who don’t have time to sift through the scrolls of Mago or page countless back issues of Wine Spectator, writer Benoist Simmat and illustrator Daniel Casanave provide the most comprehensive graphic telling of the centuries-aged and sordid legacy of the nectar of the gods and the vine from which it stems.
Simmat and Casanave’s graphic novel is a tome unto itself, weighing in at over 250 beautifully illustrated pages spanning wine’s inception to its reinvention. If you’re looking to gain a full-bodied understanding of wine through the centuries and how various cultures from the Etruscans to the Islamic world have evolved and perfected the process of winemaking, then Wine will most likely prove the only book you’ll ever need. More so, it’s bound to be the most accessible book on wine that’s been written to date.