Starting from a guest gift, an—let us assume—amphora of wine, Psellos ponders the meaning and enjoyment of wine sometime around 1060. He will have had the wine in the ancient treatises of the philosophers in his head and the wines from the north-eastern Adriatic upto the Black Sea on his palate, certainly also the wine of Greece and the Aegean Islands—is that why Psellos looks so grim above?—No, no, rather he unfolds a history of wine enjoyment that is entertaining and insightful to read.

It is a long journey that Psellos takes us on: We travel with Demosthenes to the oldest provenances, play poker with Euripides' Medea, Alcestes and Phoenician women, Psellos enlightens us about Dionysus' drinking habits, searches for wine recommendations along Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, searches the books of Solomon and Genesis for grape juice, leads us through 36,000 years of wine-sensing Stoicism, and the great Italian Greek and Byzantine scholar of the 20th century, Antonio Garzya, is allowed to introduce us to wine. Antonio Garzya may drop in on us in between, Plato's Timaeus advises on wine drinking as does the Book of Jesus Sirach from the Old Testament and Timothy from the New Testament, even Aristotle is not missing as an oenological advisor—would all these wine experts have come to mind the next time we pick up a glass of wine?—Never!—Eureka!

P.s. Axel Dielmann, as publisher, is happy to take a »First Stitch« at your place: He stitches a few first copies of the new Psellos and other volumes of our 16-volume series and talks about 1000 years of viticulture and 30 years of publishing history—Şerefe!