Jonathan Nossiter, award-winning filmmaker and former sommelier, had his first taste of wine at the age of three in Paris, from his father's fingertip. For him, wine is "memory in its most liquid and dynamic form," an essential art. In Liquid Memory, the American expatriate takes readers on a cheeky insider's investigation of the mysteries of terroir, the historical sense of place that makes wine unique.

Nossiter, who already created an uproar in the world of wine with his film Mondovino, here reveals how the tyranny of snobs, critics, and charlatans prevents us...