Vintage Book Follows the Grapevine as It Weaves Into ‘Human History’

In many areas of the world, wine is such an integral part of daily life that no one would think of ranking the merits of one bottle against another. In those areas, it is just a mere beverage but a most necessary ingredient in the upgrading of the quality of life.

In America, wine is perceived by most Americans as merely the admission pass to snob’s paradise. Except for its regular, daily, moderate use by a few ethnic groups, wine is ignored by more than a third of American society, many of whom still regard it with fear, feeling it to be akin to demon rum. It has been estimated that two-thirds of all the wine bought in the United States is bought by 20% of the purchasing households.

And thus the role of wine in world civilization is known by so few Americans. Wine “weaves in with human history from its very beginnings as few, if any, other products do . . . wine alone is charged with sacramental meaning, with healing powers; indeed with a life of its own.”

From the foreword to his new book does Hugh Johnson state the case that wine is, “before all else, a human story,” and a story that has never been told in full.

Indeed, in his book “Vintage: The Story of Wine,” Johnson finally, and glowingly, lifts wine to its rightful place as an integral part of the history of man.

“Vintage” has just been published (Simon & Schuster: $39.95) and it is long overdue, but timely since the debate about the effects of wine and all other distilled spirits are making spirited conversation, fodder for the “taxationists” as well as an argument for attorneys who seek reparations from companies who produce alcoholic beverages for failing to tell people that the products have the potential to intoxicate.

Johnson--who holds a liberal arts degree from Cambridge University and is considered a superb researcher--claims modestly that he is not a historian. So this book is not labeled as a history of wine. Yet this magnificent work digs more deeply into the roots of the vine than any book I have ever read (and I’ve got a lot of wine books). One reason is that Johnson used a professional historian, Helen Bettinson of Cambridge, to do much of the research for the book in its four-year creation.

Most significantly, the 480-page book breaks new ground in discussing the path wine took from its (probable) accidental discovery in the dim past, to the (likely) cultivation of the vine specifically for wine production about 7,000 years ago.

All of this is presented in a beautifully written, flowing text that includes references to the use of wine in all eras of human existence, in all societies, and in all forms from religious to medicinal to bacchanalian.

It’s true that other histories of wine have been written (and many of them are referenced in the extensive bibliography), but Johnson pointed out that few of these books were written with the general reader in mind, and few of these past efforts have included illustrative photos and maps. (The Robert Mondavi mission program, in which wine’s history is discussed, is one of the better discussions of wine’s past. Bettinson and Johnson helped the Mondavis with their research.)

The Johnson book is not a textbook.

“A history like this was never before written for the general reader, for the international reader and I knew it had to be made palatable,” said Johnson in an interview last week during a national tour. “I could have done a straight narrative, and there is so much material to draw from, but I had to find stories that would illustrate what happened.”

The project began more than four years ago, Johnson said, and included, midway in production, a side trip into the realm of film. Realizing he had a monumental research task on his hands that would take him thousands of miles around the globe, Johnson sought and found funding to produce what initially was conceived as a 10-part series of video tapes, half-hour episodes on 10 different vinous topics.

Villa Banfi sponsored the project and Johnson went on the road to film them--to Georgia in the Soviet Union (one of the earliest regions to cultivate the vine for wine and still a thriving wine-growing region), to Bordeaux, to California, to the southern hemisphere and elsewhere.

The project, sold in advance to the U.S. Public Broadcasting System, grew more complex as Johnson toured, and at one point expanded to 12 episodes. A 13th was added because the material was so voluminous. In fact, a huge amount of material was never used, to Johnson’s dismay.

“I did interviews with a great number of wonderful people, most of whom had very good comments that I wish I could have used,” he said. “To leave them on the cutting room floor was agonizing.”

As I watched the series unfold on PBS this past summer, it reminded me in some ways of the PBS documentary series “Connections,” which was produced with James Burke as the guide to the history of man’s development as seen through objects, mechanisms and inventions.

“That’s interesting you would say that,” said Johnson, “because James and I are good friends, and we chatted about this series before I did it.” However, the best advice about its production came from Michael Gill, one of the producers of the series (along with WGBH in Boston and Channel 4 in London).

“Michael said that to do a series of half-hour shows like this you have to simplify the points and rub them in,” said Johnson. “That means you do three things. First you tell them what you’re going to tell them; then you tell them and then you tell them what you’ve just told them.”

The series, then, uses some of the material Johnson eventually used in the book but in a different way, and the shows, now available in video format ($120 for all 13), are better than the book in one way--graphically; you can see the regions and the locations far better than the small photos in the book.

But the book presents material in more depth, not like the video version, which is more a survey, an overview.

Johnson was a little disappointed with how some PBS stations played the series--”Occasionally the time of day was in the morning on a weekday or on a Saturday afternoon when people were watching football.” (To their credit, California PBS stations showed the series in the early evenings, when more wine lovers could watch.)

Also, Johnson was perturbed that at least two stations, PBS affiliates in Seattle and Baltimore, “refused to air the show because of the alcohol debate now going on in your country.”

In 1970, Johnson toured the Napa Valley of California. There he discovered a then virtually unknown resource called California wine. He noted that its potential was unlimited and that some of the wines then on the market were already the equal of some of the best made in France.

He called his editor at Gourmet magazine and offered to write about those feelings for the publication. The editor opposed the idea, saying no one would believe him.

It took some wrangling but Johnson won, and the article appeared a few months later. It was the first national exposure for the still-sleeping Napa Valley and a big boost for a wine industry that, in 1970, had still not yet fully recovered from the soporific effects of Prohibition.

Johnson’s ability to sense something others cannot see came up again earlier this year at a dinner party in the Napa Valley at the home of Dr. Bernard and Belle Rhodes, wine collectors and the owners of the famed Bella Oaks Vineyard.

Rhodes poured a number of 1960 wines from his cellar for an impressive array of wine cognoscenti, including a number of world-renowned wine makers. One of the wines had a strange, musty aroma, but it was not a mustiness from a bad cork or from bad cooperage. All those sitting around the table proclaimed the wine to be bad, and even Rhodes--who was familiar with the wine--agreed that the wine should be dumped.

Then Johnson, sniffing quietly, said, “I’d give it a chance, perhaps another hour in the glass. I think it may need some airing.”

“Oh, Hugh, it’s gone,” said one of the guests. Most dumped the wine; Johnson pushed his glass to one side. An hour later, as the dishes were being cleared, Rhodes noted that the wine had, amazingly, cleared up. Johnson just shrugged and said it happens now and then.

The remark and its quiet delivery illustrate Johnson’s utter modesty, and the story illustrates Johnson’s willingness to look past the obvious.

He claims not to be an expert taster of wines, rather that he merely is a researcher and writer, but Johnson can judge wine better than most people I know. And he has done all this from a base of knowledge that would surprise most people.

That’s because there are people who know Johnson and they’d never guess he knows a thing about wine. To these people, he is Hugh Johnson, tree expert. Or gardening expert. His books on trees and on gardening have won him worldwide acclaim. His “Principles of Gardening” and “Hugh Johnson’s Encyclopedia of Trees” are two of the most comprehensive and respected books on the subject.

His wine books are known by wine lovers to be some of the best work ever done on wine. After starting to write about wine in his mid-20s in 1966, Johnson has written literally dozens of books on the subject, many of them opening new levels of expertise for the dedicated wine lover as well as for the beginner.

Here is a capsule look at a few of his books (which, by the way, are not listed in his latest work, more testament to his modesty):

“Wine” (Simon & Shuster: $9.95, 1970)--Once out of print but recently re-released in quality paperback. Not written in depth, but a marvelously readable look at the various areas of the world where wine is made.

“The World Atlas of Wine” (Simon & Shuster: $40, 1971, third edition 1985)--The first (and still best) analysis of the geography of wine regions and how geography influences wine quality. More than two million copies have been sold in 12 languages.

“Hugh Johnson’s Modern Encyclopedia of Wine” (Simon & Shuster: $30, Revised Edition 1987)--The most complete book on the wine regions of the world with detailed listings of the people who make the wine, to whom they are connected and other valuable information about the wines we drink.

“Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Encyclopedia of Wine 1989” (Simon & Shuster: $9.95, updated annually)--The definitive reference to carry around when shopping, with loads of information on producers and vintages.

In addition, Johnson has written books in his native England that have never been made available in this country, and he collaborated with Napa Valley resident Bob Thompson (Wines and Vines magazine’s wine writer of the year for 1989) on a now out-of-print masterpiece called “The California Wine Book.”

I consider this new work to be one of his best and certainly the most approachable for a broad audience. The text is so insightful, carefully written, well researched and up to date that even people who are only casually interested in wine will enjoy it.

Moreover, the format makes the book worth looking at. Embedded in each chapter are a series of sidebar stories, boxed elements that add explication to the chapter and that often are only tangentially related to wine, but flesh out the tale. These little digressions give added color to an already vivid story.

Also, the index at the rear is extensive and a great help in finding what you’re looking for--a similar attribute of Johnson’s “Modern Encyclopedia.” And the chapter-by-chapter bibliography is a marvelous resource for further study.

Simon & Schuster, Johnson’s U.S. publisher, chose to print 55,000 copies of the first edition of “Vintage: The Story of Wine” and to support the release of the book with a national press tour.

(Regarding the press run, unestablished wine authors usually warrant a run of about 7,000 copies; those with a track record may end up with a print run of 12,000 to 20,000 copies. The “Vintage” print run for Johnson may be short of Simon & Schuster’s needs if quality is any indication of how fast it will sell. The book, printed in Germany, is on high-grade paper with good binding and a cloth bookmark.)

The press tour took Johnson to San Francisco and here the Wine Appreciation Guild tossed a Thursday evening dinner to honor him. Despite a hefty $125 per person dinner ticket, more than 200 showed up. Each ticket holder also got a copy of the book.

After the dinner, Johnson gave an impassioned speech addressing a subject he detests: the American penchant for linking wine, beer and spirits into one category and then attacking the category as little more than alcohol.

Johnson told the crowd not to be embarrassed or ashamed about the effects of wine in moderation, that in moderation wine offers a delightful respite from the busyness of our worlds and that wine with its modest amount of alcohol has, as he wrote in his book, “the power to banish care.”

Then the guild presented Johnson with its Wine Literary Award, the first time an author has received the award more than once. (Johnson received it in 1984 as well.)

The book and the video tapes are superb holiday gifts and may be ordered from the Guild by calling (800) 231-9463 in California or (800) 242-9462 outside California. Shipping cost is $4 to any U.S. address.

With this book, Hugh Johnson surpasses all other wine authors, including the late, esteemed Andre Simon.