For 8000 years, wines have been refined and developed into one of the foremost products of civilization. This fully illustrated volume traces the origins of wine-making from ancient Greece and Rome to the present day. The author provides a cultural perspective that allows the reader to understand the wine world as it exists today, and explains how great wines have their roots in the customs, traditions and history of their individual countries. Hugh Johnson discusses why certain areas and cultures produce great wines, and what in the history of the wine-making process separates the great from the merely good. He also provides many interesting vignettes, such as the invention of the wine bottle, how champagne survived the bombardments of World War I, and how a 14th century wine ship was navigated. Hugh Johnson is the author of numerous books on wine, including Hugh Johnson's Wine Companion, Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book and The World Atlas of Wine.