SCIENCES

One Thousand Vines: A New Way To Understand Wine

by Pascaline Lepeltier

Mitchell Beazley: Octopus. Nov. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9781784729233. $55. BEVERAGES

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Lepeltier is one of roughly 25 women to ever earn the master sommelier certification. Her unique book contains fun wine facts, such as 68 percent of the wine industry’s carbon dioxide emissions are due to glass bottle packaging and cork trees regenerate their bark and live up to 200 years. She also offers a new way to understand wine. Organized by broad topic (reading vines, landscapes, and wines) and subtopics (ecology, terroir, and more), this book touches on the biology, botany, geology, architecture, history, anatomy, and anthropology of wine. The charming scientific illustrations by Loan Nguyen Thanh Lan include maps and explanations about how grapes grow, how rocks are formed, and what their molecular structures are.

VERDICT While encyclopedic in structure, this is a readable work that adds to readers’ knowledge of viticulture and the processes that make wine what it is. The book has an excellent, well-cited index and an extensive bibliography too. Aspiring or current wine connoisseurs will want this on their shelves.

Reviewed by Maria Ashton-Stebbings , Nov 08, 2024

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