Tasting the Past – book review

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Tasting the Past 
The science of flavor and the search for the origins of wine 
Kevin Begos 
Published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill 
ISBN 9781616205775 
$27, £21 

This must be the only wine book in the world that starts with a bottle of wine from a hotel mini-bar. Even more singular is that the hotel is in Amman, Jordan. 

It was a little bottle of red wine, produced by Cremisan Cellars in Bethlehem. Like most mini-bar wine, it should have tasted pretty awful, neutral at best. It surprised Kevin Begos by being spicy, different, balanced, even possibly with a...