Around the World in Eighty Wines: Exploring Wine One Country at a Time | Veseth, Mike

Inspired by Jules Verne's classic adventure tale, Mike Veseth takes his readers Around the World in Eighty Wines. The journey starts in London, Phileas Fogg's home base, and follows Fogg's itinerary to France and Italy before veering off in search of compelling wine stories in Syria, Georgia, and Lebanon. Every glass of wine tells a story, and so each of the eighty wines must tell an important tale. We head back across Northern Africa to Algeria, once the world's leading wine exporter, before hopping across the sea to Spain and Portugal. We follow Portuguese trade routes to Madeira and then South Africa with a short detour to taste Kenya's most famous Pinot Noir. Kenya? Pinot Noir? Really! The route loops around, visiting Bali, Thailand, and India before heading north to China to visit Shangri-La. Shangri-La? Does that even exist? It does, and there is wine there. Then it is off to Australia, with a detour in Tasmania, which is so cool that it is hot. The stars of the Southern Cross (and the lyrics of a familiar song) guide us to New Zealand, Chile, and Argentina. We ride a wine train in California and rendezvous with Planet Riesling in Seattle before getting into fast cars for a race across North America, collecting more wine as we go. Pause for lunch in Virginia to honor Thomas Jefferson, then it's time to jet back to London to tally our wines and see what we have learned. Why these particular places? What are the eighty wines and what do they reveal? And-spoiler alert!-what is the surprise plot twist that guarantees a happy ending for every wine lover? Come with us on a journey of discovery that will inspire, inform, and entertain anyone who loves travel, adventure, or wine. Mike Veseth is an economist who studies global wine markets. He is the editor of the blog The Wine Economist and the author of more than a dozen books, including the best-selling Wine Wars (2011), Extreme Wine (2013), and Money, Taste & Wine (2015), which received the 2016 Gourmand International award for 'Best in the World' wine writing. The Wine Economist was named 2015 'Best in the World' wine blog by Gourmand International, and Wall Street Journal wine columnist Lettie Teague writes, 'Of all the wine blogs in the wide, wide blogosphere, one that I look forward to reading the most is Mike Veseth's. There's nothing else quite like it-a blend of economic insight . . . and often irreverent winespeak.' Mike speaks frequently at national and international wine conferences. He lives with his wife, Sue, in Tacoma, Washington, where he is professor emeritus of international political economy at the University of Puget Sound.