Born in Paris, Charles Frankel is a science writer and lecturer specializing in geology and planetary exploration. His books include The End of the Dinosaurs: Chicxulub Crater and Mass Extinctions and Worlds on Fire.
Who knew that the crispness of Sancerre stems from the unique succession of sedimentary strata buried in the limestone soil of the upper Loire Valley, or that a splendid Cote-de-Brouilly is a by-product of volcanism? The author is a geologist by training but an oenophile by avocation, and the combination of those interests makes Land and Wine an indispensable manual for wine connoisseurs interested in why the grapes of France taste as they do. Terroir, for Frankel , has a meaning that goes deep beneath the surface. --John Varriano, author of Wine: A Cultural History