Book review: Kevin Begos - Tasting the Past

Simon reviews Kevin Begos's new book "Tasting the Past - The science of flavor and the search for the origins of wine"

When I first heard about Kevin Begos’s new book, my own magnum opus was about to roll off the printing presses. As it shared some historical ground with “Tasting the Past”, fellow authors may understand my mild panic. Might this book hold answers to puzzles I’d failed to resolve, or illuminate topics that I’d under-explored or even neglected? Could it render my entire thesis null and void, just days before I was about to offer it up to the world?

It certainly sounded like there was treasure within. Begos’s inspiration stemmed from a random bottle of Palestinian red wine enjoyed in a Jordan hotel room in 2005. His quest begins a few years later, as he attempts to discover more about Israel and Palestine's long and seemingly undocumented history of making wine and cultivating indigenous grape varieties.

Begos puts his journalist’s shoulder to the wheel, and uncovers a slew of detail about the Holy Land’s vinous past, over the course of a decade and several return visits to Jerusalem. His …