Book review: Wine, A Global History by Kathleen Burk

When I read an email about Kathleen Burk’s new book, Wine: A Global History (£30 Profile Books, October 2026), I tried not to get too excited. I’ve been burnt too many times before.

Burk’s name wasn’t one I knew, but she comes with serious credentials. She grew up on a farm in California surrounded by vines, studied at the University of California, Berkeley and Oxford University before a lengthy academic career, authoring various articles and books.

Now professor emerita of modern and contemporary history at University College London, her work has largely been dedicated to history – but wine has been far more than just a hobby.

From visiting Napa’s wineries while at UC Berkeley to studying for her WSET diploma, judging for the International Wine & Spirit Competition and writing for The World of Fine Wine, she clearly loves wine.

And you’d have to love wine to take on writing a book such as this: an ambitious offering that looks at wine across history, following it back eight millennia over its 600-plus pages.

While the book begins chronologically, the ensuing chapters shift to a regional focus – from France and the Spanish Empire to the snappily titled post-Soviet Union wine-producing countries.

At the end of each chapter, you’ll find a spotlight on a specific wine, but their purpose is unclear, beyond being deemed symbolic. They’re often not from a current vintage and come with rather formulaic, WSET-style tasting notes.

Some of the vinous detail in the book also jars – the phrasing not quite fluent (‘un-cloned’ vines, for example) or the information lacking context.

Burk often falls into an academic trap, spelling out what she’ll say, saying it and then confirming what she’s just said.

The final chapter, ‘The contemporary wine world’, provides the book with a rather abrupt ending – rushing from statistics on dwindling consumption to a three-sentence conclusion – so much so that I wondered if she’d run out of word count.

All in all, it doesn’t quite land for me. That said, the book shouldn’t be dismissed entirely; it’s packed with fascinating information.

The first 150 pages were those that captivated me most, tracing wine’s origins through Ancient Greece and Rome, its expansion via religion and war, and its complicated relationship with Islam.

Had these been fleshed out, given room to breathe, with appropriate maps and illustrations helping to bring them to life, they could have formed a fascinating book of their own.

Watch: The Wine Store

Laughs in store...

If your Instagram algorithm hasn’t yet fed you The Wine Store, I urge you to seek it out (@thewinestoreshow).

In each episode, Dave Ahdoot takes on the role of Jean-Luc, a gloriously pretentious sommelier and salesman (complete with tastevin strung around his neck) faced with a new, curious customer and their request.

Witty, mildly educational and surely set for greater and even funnier things, it’s a solid use of your screentime. Created by Ahdoot, Matan Zrachia and Nadav Pessach, with HaSalon somm Nico J Snyman consulting, a new episode drops each Friday.

Related articles