Why temperance will always fail

We are Homo Imbibens. We're designed for booze. And in the long run, booze will always win

The history of civilization, in many ways, is the history of wine. Economically, religiously, socially, medically, and politically, the domesticated grapevine has intertwined itself with human culture from at least the Neolithic period and probably long before that. We recapitulate that history every time we pick up a glass of wine

That’s Professor Patrick McGovern who died in August this year. The last few weeks have seen various obituaries (and here) to a man dubbed “the Indiana Jones of booze”. Look at the pictures below. You’ll see why. I may appear on Times Radio tomorrow to discuss his legacy with Hugo Rifkind (at roughly 12.45pm if it happens).

I first came across McGovern’s work in the 1990’s. McGovern, who died aged eighty, was the scientific director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Laboratory for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages, and Health at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, and was also an adjunct professor of anthropology. When I first heard about him he was developing his theory of Homo Imbibens - or “the drinking man”. He had recently been involved in a conference, “The Origins and Ancient History of Wine,” organised at the Robert Mondavi Winery. Mondavi himself was delighted (although not surprised) to discover that the conference inspired McGovern to do more research. And Mondavi eventually went on to write the forward in McGovern’s celebrated and award-winning book, Ancient Wine.

McGovern’s most important idea - at least for me - was sometimes summarised as “I drink, therefore I am”. The idea that not only was it thoroughly human to drink. But it was drinking that made us humans in the first place.