Modernity allows middle-aged men one of two hobbies: cycling or wine. Deprived of their ancient joys of learning, religion and, for the moment, war, the man who is past his first bloom of youth must embrace the cork or Lycra. The algorithm has made the decision for me. As my thirties limp on, my online presence seems dominated by men in crumpled suits talking about ‘Super Tuscans’ (those are reds made with non-indigenous grapes, for the uninitiated).

A lot of wine talk falls between the nakedly promotional and the downright boring, but Kathleen Burk’s magnificent history is neither. As she reminds us, wine has been a part of human culture for a long time. The first evidence for rice wine is found around 7000 BC in Jiahu in China; for wine made from grapes, the date is a thousand years later and the location Armenia. 

Wine has been a witness to many of the key moments in human history, from the pottery jars heralding the transition into the Neolithic in the Caucasus to the holdall of bottles that brought down Boris Johnson. Sometimes it plays a central role – as in the death of Alexander