The Curious World of Wine

The Curious World of Wine is a fascinating miscellany about the colorful characters, celebrated places, and quirky events surrounding wine-making. Recounting wine tales that are by turns amusing, surprising, and occasionally a bit naughty, wine expert Richard Vine reveals little-known facts such as: • The oldest vineyard still producing grapes is thought to be in Maribor, Slovenia, where vines up to four hundred years old remain fruitful. • Plonk, a term used to insult any modestly priced wine, got its name from the French words for white wine-vin blanc, pronounced vawn blawnk, which was corrupted to plawnk or plonk. • Thomas Jefferson was so eager to plant native French vines at his Monticello mansion that he nearly went bankrupt fruitlessly hiring experts to defeat a condition that caused European vines to mysteriously die in North American soil.• Touching wineglasses as a toast was originally a deft move to exchange a splash of wine into each other's cup to ensure that neither party was being poisoned. The Curious World of Wine will keep any wine fan entertained and enlightened-from the most erudite connoisseur to Two Buck Chuck devotees.