Why did France become the center of the wine world? Wine historian Rod Phillips, Professor of History at Carleton University and author of French Wine: A History, Alcohol: A History, and 9000 Years of Wine, joins host Noah Tetzner to explore how wine shaped, and was shaped by, centuries of history.

Rod shares how he bought his first case of wine at 15 in New Zealand, became a restaurant sommelier at 17, and found two bottles of 1950 Bordeaux selling for the price of a hamburger. From there, we travel from medieval Bordeaux and the English market that made claret, sherry, port, and Champagne famous, to the French Revolution, when a Burgundy man was tried for treason and executed in 1793 for serving bad wine to soldiers. Rod also takes apart the popular myth that people drank wine because water was unsafe, explains why the wine Hemingway drank in 1920s Paris was likely far lower in alcohol than today's, and makes the case for Canadian wine, from the Okanagan Valley and Niagara to Prince Edward County.

In this episode:

- Why did France become the reference point for the wine world?

- Did people in the past drink wine because water was unsafe?

- How strong was wine a century ago?

- How did the French Revolution change French wine?

- What should you know about Canadian wine beyond icewine?

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome and introduction

01:29 Buying wine at 15 and becoming a sommelier at 17

06:48 Moving to Canada and a hamburger-priced 1950 Bordeaux

08:27 From the history of divorce to the history of cats

10:26 Why France became the center of the wine world

14:33 Was wine only for the wealthy?

16:32 Was wine really safer than water?

19:31 How strong was the wine in Hemingway's Paris?

22:24 Wine and the French Revolution: executed for bad wine

28:31 Canadian wine beyond icewine

33:33 Prince Edward County, Ontario's wine country

34:55 Rod's first memorable bottle and his one region for life

37:08 Where to find Rod's work

Links and resources:

Rod Phillips on Wine: https://www.rodphillipsonwine.com/

Rod's faculty page at Carleton University: https://carleton.ca/history/people/roderick-phillips/

Rod's articles in The World of Fine Wine: https://worldoffinewine.com/author/rodphillips1

Is it true that wine was safer than water?: https://worldoffinewine.com/uncategorized/wine-was-safer-than-water

The decline of Canadian icewine: The China connection: https://worldoffinewine.com/news-features/canadian-icewine-decline

The very long and very short history of barrel-aged wine: https://worldoffinewine.com/news-features/wine-barrel-history

Liberality, quality, festivity: Wine in the French Revolution: https://worldoffinewine.com/homepage-featured-articles/wine-french-revolution

French Wine: A History (University of California Press): https://www.ucpress.edu/books/french-wine/paper

Alcohol: A History (UNC Press): https://uncpress.org/9781469652177/alcohol/

9000 Years of Wine: A World History (Whitecap Books): https://www.whitecap.ca/Detail/1770502408

Wine: A Social and Cultural History of the Drink that Changed Our Lives (Académie du Vin Library): https://academieduvinlibrary.com/products/wine-a-social-and-cultural-history-of-the-drink-that-changed-our-lives-rod-phillips

The Wines of Canada (Académie du Vin Library): https://academieduvinlibrary.com/products/the-wines-of-canada-rod-phillips

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Connect with the host: noah@profitwithpodcasting.com