WINNER OF THE FORTNUM & MASON FOOD AND DRINK AWARDS DEBUT DRINK BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019

WINNER OF THE LOUIS ROEDERER INTERNATIONAL WINE BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2018

'Wine is alive, ageing and changing, but it's also a triumph over death. These grapes should rot. Instead they ferment. What better magic potion could there be, to convey us to the past?'

Impelled by a dual thirst, for wine and for knowledge, Nina Caplan follows the vine into the past, wandering from Champagne's ancient chalk to the mountains of Campania, via the crumbling Roman ruins that flank the river Rhône and the remote slopes of Priorat in Catalonia. She meets people whose character, stubbornness and sometimes, borderline craziness makes their wine great: an intrepid Englishman planting on rabbit-infested Downs, a glamorous eagle-chasing Spaniard and an Italian lawyer obsessed with reviving Falernian, legendary wine of the Romans. In the course of her travels, she drinks a lot and learns a lot: about dead conquerors and living wines, forgotten zealots and – in vino veritas, as Pliny said – about herself.

In this lyrical and charming book, Nina Caplan drinks in order to remember and travels in order to understand the meaning of home. This is narrative travel writing at its best.

For fans of Italian wine, few names command the level of respect accorded to Brunello di Montalcino. Expert wine writer Kerin O'Keefe has a deep personal knowledge of Tuscany and its extraordinary wine, and her account is both thoroughly researched and readable. Organized as a guided tour through Montalcino's geography, this essential reference also makes sense of Brunello's complicated history, from its rapid rise to the negative and positive effects of the 2008 grape-blending scandal dubbed "Brunellogate". O'Keefe also provides in-depth profiles of nearly sixty leading producers of Brunello.

Who does not know the phrase 'Have some madeira, m'dear'? Madeira is one of the world's greatest wines, with a fascinating history few others can equal. Capable of evolution over decades and with seemingly indefinite longevity, precious centenarian bottles are sought by wine connoisseurs world wide, but to the ordinary wine lover more commercial wines offer a wide range of delicious and varied drinking. Once dismissed as a cooking wine, discriminating drinkers enjoy it on its own and, increasingly, as an accompaniment to food. Over a million tourists visit this small island every year, and expanding export markets indicate that the recent revival of interest in madeira continues to gain strength. This book, originally published in 1998, was short-listed for the Andre Simon Award and quickly established itself as a wine classic. Alexander Liddell, recognised as the leading authority on madeira, has known the island and its wine for over forty years, and this completely revised new edition brings matters up to date.