Episode 174: Tasting the Past With Author Kevin Begos

Kevin Begos, author of the new book Tasting the Past: The Science of Flavor & the Search for the Origins of Wine, chats with the W25 ladies. Fresh off his book tour, he shares his “tasting notes” on the 10-year wine grape journey … that all started in a hotel room minibar in the Middle East.

[This episode was recorded on 30 July 2018. Books were provided by JRB Communications.]

In the Glasses: (pre-show)

We’re getting right into it this week. Kevin’s sipping coffee, Steph is recovering from vacation with a green drink, and Val was fortunate to excavate a Dogfish Head Midas Touch in honor of this book (see page 26).

Tasting the Past on a Monday Afternoon (0:30)

We are talking with Kevin Begos, the author of the new book Tasting the Past: The Science of Flavor & the Search for the Origins of Wine. Steph and Val are just going to call it: this is a wine lover’s must read and at the top of our “favorites” lists.

About Kevin

Kevin Begos is a former MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellow and former Associated Press Correspondent whose work has been published in GuildSomm and many newspapers and magazines. His writings have appeared in Scientific American, the New York Times, USA Today, Harper’s, Salon, Christian Science Monitor, and the Guild of Sommeliers.

It all started … (1:25)

First he lets us in on the fact that he was just an average, normal wine consumer who appreciated wine, but wasn’t sure how to go about learning more or “getting serious” about it. Like many of us, he often assumed that all things wine led back to France. Of course we were all a few thousand years (and miles) off.

But since writing the book, he believes that his experiences traveling and tasting different styles of wines around the world have given him a whole different perspective in understanding, if not appreciating wine grapes and varieties.

… in a hotel room’s minibar (3:30)

It’s fair to say that by tasting the Cremisan wine and finding out about the original grapes is what launched his 10-year journey to this book. It’s also fair to say that we have no immediate plans for W25 grape gabs around the Baladi, Hamdani, Jandali, and Dabouki grapes, for obvious reasons. That said, if you find these in your #W25Challenge drinking, please, please let us know!

Parallel wine trails (5:50)

The one thing we’ve all learned as we’ve pursued our knowledge and understanding of the many aspects of wine is that the wine world is quite small. There were many parallels drawn in this book to some of the things that have happened in our own wine journeys – and even on this show! Kevin says, “without knowing each other, we’re looking for something different, even if we love the classic French and Italian wines … it’s grown into a movement, I think.”

Naturally this also parallels with the #W25Challenge first launched in 2016! Call it a shameless plug if you must.

If he could do it again (6:40)

We asked him which experience or conversation he would like to relive from the book. Kevin confessed that the trip to the Republic of Georgia truly was not long enough. He recommends a week or two to really explore the region and valleys that many believe to be the origins of winemaking.

While hinting at his embarrassing wine story later in the show, building the terraces in the Swiss vineyard was not an experience he wished to extend. That said, he’s glad he got to have the revelations while he was fortunate enough to be there.

No jinxing, but … (14:36)

Kevin also drops a few hints about future projects. However, we were disappointed to find that there will not be a forthcoming 1000+ page book on the many strains of wine yeast. We forgave him.

We ask all our guests to share with us an embarrassing wine story, and Kevin did not disappoint. He elaborated on the chapter of the book where he was building a rock terrace on a steep, high-altitude vineyard landscape in Switzerland. Well, he survived, but you’ll have to listen to hear how.

Contact Kevin (17:14)

https://www.kevinbegos.com/

Email: kbegos@nasw.org

Twitter: @kbegos

Shoutouts (18:24)

Thank you to

Kevin Begos
Johanna J. Ramos-Boyer from JRB Communications, LLC
Johanna’s Publicity Assistant, Erin Bolden for sending us copies of the books, & helping us set up this interview.

Also, thank you, Kristen L. on Instagram!

Kristen L on Instagram: “I've been listening to the @winetwofivepodcast for a couple of months now, bingeing it from the very beginning. I learned that there's so…”

Thank you, Kristen L on Instagram!“I’ve been listening to the @winetwofivepodcast for a couple of months now, bingeing it from the very beginning. I learned that there’s so much more to wine than what I currently consume, which is almost 100% California wine. I’ve been inspired by the podcast to start learning more about wines from other places. This is one of the books they mention a lot, and I’m excited to start reading!”

A Word from our Sponsor & Partner in Wine: Weekly Tasting! (20:35)

Shout out to Weekly Tasting, our show sponsor, and part of the incredible offerings from WTSO! One of the benefits of Weekly Tasting is the colorful recipe cards that come with the four wines. There are even gluten-free recipes. You’ll also appreciate that there are simple steps and no weird ingredients.

You can go to your listener page at: weeklytasting.com/W25 to sign up and get started! Or just go to our web page and click on the link to get started!