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Jason Pack Founder and CEO
Jason Pack is an author, academic, entrepreneur and media commentator. His primary vocation is historical writing, political commentary and risk management consulting about the Middle East. He has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Guardian and Foreign Affairs. He appears frequently on the BBC, Al-Jazeera, Voice of America and CNN. His cultural commentary (including wine writing) has appeared in The Spectator, London Review of Books, WineSofa, Georgia Today and The Times Literary Supplement.
Jason was blessed to grow up in a household with an extensive, yet conventional, cellar. Only later in life did he discover that there was a lot more to wine than Napa, Bordeaux and Burgundy -- and that paradoxically encounters with Sagrantino di Montefalco, Tokaji, English sparkling, red Etnas and the like could more reliably produce transformative drinking experiences than decades old bottles of the classics.
Jason’s work and travels have brought him to over sixty countries. As a serious student of the Islamic world where wine connoisseurship and public drinking rituals are either unknown or forbidden, he became captivated by the history of wine in Europe and its crucial role in the development of Western cultural and sacred traditions.
Applying this historical mindset plus his blind tasting training (Jason competed for both the Oxford and Cambridge Blind Wine Tasting teams), he is involved in systematically exploring both the natural factors (climate, soil, grape varietal, etc.) and winemaking techniques (Clay vs. Oak, harvest date, fermentation duration and temperature, natural vs. conventional methods, etc.) that make different wines taste as they do.
Despite Jason’s lifelong fascination with wine, he happened upon the birthplace of wine solely by chance. He was invited by the Georgian National Tourism Administration to tour the country. He then chose to write about Georgia’s ongoing geopolitical significance to Eurasian affairs. This caused him to stumble upon the country’s role in the origin and evolution of wine.
Jason created the Birthplace of Wine Experience LLC to give his clients the opportunity to experience the epiphany of tasting wines that are the most similar currently available to those drunk by the ancient Greeks and Romans, while also discovering how the contemporary Georgian boutique wine scene is the most dynamic and palate-expanding frontier in 21st century fine wine.
More information:
To learn more about Jason’s day job, please check out Libya-Analysis.com"
His CV is here.
For his overview of classical Kakhetian Georgian wine types and the magic of exploring them, please start here.