A Short History of Wine
Review by Lynn Martin
Rod Phillips, A Short History of Wine (London: Allen Lane/The Penguin Press, 2000 [New York: HarperCollins, Fall 2001]), bib., index, 25 ill., xxiv + 370 pp., RRP UK £20.
This is an impressive achievement, not the least because Phillips started work on the book in 1998 – not the writing but the research! As he explains in his acknowledgments, in 1998 someone suggested that he take on the history of wine. The suggestion came because Phillips is both a historian and an oenophile. The combination of interests has resulted in a book that is both learned and readable, and one that is suitable for a wide audience. The text is almost 350 pages in length, so the "short" of the title might raise a few eyebrows. There is nothing "short" about the scope of the book, however, for Phillips begins in prehistory in an attempt to pinpoint the origins of wine. There follows chapters on Ancient Greece and Rome, the Dark Ages, the revival of viticulture in the period between 1000 and 1500, the revolution in alcohol between 1500 and 1700, the spread of wine to the new world, the period of the Enlightenment and Revolution, the promising developments of the eighteenth century, the time of troubles caused by the enemies of wine such as phylloxera and temperance movements, and the promising developments since 1950. The developments in France receive most attention, which is justified because of its important role in the history of wine, but Phillips covers both the Old and New World and both the northern and southern hemispheres. Although the focus is on the production of wine, he addresses the social, economic, political, and medical aspects of wine's history.
Throughout I was impressed with Phillips’ scholarship, his balance, and his careful, thought-provoking analysis. My area of expertise is drinking behaviour and attitudes toward drinking in the late Middle Ages and early modern period, but I found little in these chapters that I could fault and much that was useful. I did not always agree with Phillips, however. In my opinion the traditional patterns of drinking ended during the eighteenth century when the rising popularity of spirits resulted in social and economic problems that were not as pronounced previously. The same century witnessed the rising consumption of tea and coffee, which meant people had a safe alternative to alcoholic drinks. The combined effects of these two developments led to the temperance movements of the nineteenth century. Phillips puts the increase in the consumption of spirits earlier and the increase in the consumption of tea and coffee later.
Two of the long-term trends in the history of wine relate to the topics of quantity and quality. People are drinking better wine than before, but they are drinking less of it. Annual per capita consumption of wine in France fell from 170 litres in 1930 to about 60 today; in Italy it fell from 110 litres in 1950 to also about 60 (compared with the figure of 20 for Australia). Figures from late medieval and early modern Europe indicate some areas consumed as much as twice the 1930 amount. Historians have no way of ascertaining the taste of the wine consumed in the distant past, but all the evidence leads to the conclusion that most of it was quite mediocre if that. People drank new wine, that is, wine from the most recent vintage, which was usually the only wine drinkable in the period before glass bottles and effective corks. Despite the decline in consumption, the amount of land devoted to vines continues to increase, leading to the problem of overproduction. Nonetheless, Phillips is optimistic about the future: "At the beginning of the new millennium all the wind seems to be in the sails of the wine industry. General prosperity in western economies has sustained a healthy wine market, producers are paying more attention to quality than ever before, interest in wine is more widespread that it has ever been, and wine is once again being hailed as a healthy beverage."
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