Godforsaken Grapes: A Slightly Tipsy Journey through the World of

There are nearly 1,400 known varieties of wine grapes in the world-from auxerrois, blaufrankisch, and carmenere to xinomavro, yellow muscat and zierfandler-but 80% of the wine we drink is made from only 20 grapes. In Godforsaken Grapes, food and wine expert and travel writer Jason Wilson looks at how that came to be and takes the reader on a passionate, wide-ranging journey through the other 98% of wine grapes. After all, drinking the same thing all the time is boring. From Switzerland, Austria, and Portugal, through Bordeaux, Southwest France, German-speaking nqrthern Italy, and back to California´s Anderson Valley, New York´s Finger Lakes and even Vermont and New Jersey, Wilson delves into rare and wonderful grapes. He looks at what it means to be obscure, what indigenous grapes can tell us about culture, and how domestic policies, geopolitics, economics, and fashion have changed what we drink-dooming wines of the Romans (Gutturnio), Hapsburgs (Gumpoldskirchen), southern France (Gaillac), and Ernest Hemingway (Sien) to obscurity. Blending extensive travels in wine-producing regions, and conversations with master sommeliers, cutting- edge hipster winemakers, and explorers on an obsessive hunt for the rarest grapes in the world, Godforsaken Grapes is an entertaining love letter to wine.