Customer Reviews

Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages

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So says Patrick McGovern, and this book explains how it got that way. McGovern theorizes that organisms great and small, perhaps from the unicellular to non-human primates to humans, are hard wired to crave the products of sugar fermentation, particularly alcohol. This taste for fermented beverages has been a driving force in the evolution of human biology, agriculture, culture and religion, or so it would seem. McGovern documents this evolution through archeological findings from Europe, Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East -- anywhere and everywhere wine, beer and other alcoholic beverages have been made for many thousands of years,from grain, fruit, honey and whatever other raw material mankind could coax into creating intoxicating food and drink. We are, as McGovern has entitled his very first chapter, "Homo Imbibens."

As the book concludes, summing up the theme, "our species' intimate relationship with fermented beverages over millions of years has, in large measure, made us what we are today."

Being neither an archeologist nor a paleontologist, I found some of the copious detail presented in this book to be tough sledding. Nevertheless, it is a fascinating read and worth the effort.

You expect to learn about grapes and barley, but you also find out that chocolate was originally an alcoholic beverage. And that maybe the ancestors of maize were used to make an alcoholic beverage. The take home message is that our ancient ancestors were clever and resourceful, and they could brew up alcohol from nearly anything that was or could be made sweet.

Uncorking the past is informative and fun to read. People who are interested in how humans got to where we are will enjoy this book.

Lots of interesting history of humankind and their favorite beverages. Well-written and entertaining, though there are parts that come off a bit repetitive.