Bruce Feiler has written seven New York Times bestsellers, given three TED talks, taught a TED Course, and is a high-in-demand speaker on mastering life transitions, the secrets of happy families, and what he has called “The Nonlinear Life.”

His latest book is particularly on point for those of us who love food and wine. It’s called, “A Time to Gather: How Ritual Created the World – and How It Can Save Us.”

Called “one of our great decoders of human connection,” Feiler traveled around the world, from the Vatican to Las Vegas, attending life rituals in 16 countries on six continents, from baptisms to weddings to funerals and beyond, capturing what he saw for the book.

He was motivated by the slow disappearance of all kinds of rituals, detailing, for example, how fewer than half of Americans are married and only one in three is buried.

“It took us ten thousand years to establish cultural norms around how we mark collective life transitions,” he writes. “It took us 50 years to dismantle them.”

Over those ten thousand years there has been wine, with archeological digs finding evidence of wine production as far back as the 6th millennium BC, and civilizations like the Greeks and Romans incorporating wine into their religious practices. Ever since, wine has been an important part of social gatherings.

What Feiler discovered during his travels is that in response to the decline in traditional rituals is a ritual renaissance “pushing back against apathy, loneliness, and digital saturation,” with people of all ages and backgrounds reimagining collective ways to gather around life, love, health, and family.

Many of these rituals center around food and drink, of course. And Feiler knows about that, too. He’s been awarded three James Beard Awards for articles published in Gourmet magazine and has written extensively about dinner parties.

“Good conversation is as central to a successful dinner party as good food, wine and flowers,” he wrote in “The Life (and Death) of the Dinner Party” in 2011. “Yet it’s the area that gets the least planning and thought. Whatever style you prefer, a successful conversation requires multiple parties – a shifting alliance of talkers and listeners, performers and audience members, alphas and betas.”

About gathering, Feiler recently told “CBS Mornings” he felt homesick after dropping his kids off at college and didn’t just want a relationship with his phone. His idea for the book flourished and what he found was good news.

“Americans are creating astonishing new ways to gather,” he said.

One thing he suggests in creating rituals is to have an opening wow, to greet people with something special for whatever ritual you create, and as important, end with a moment of hope. And to create a ritual state of mind, to think of rituals as the original human algorithm, and make a commitment to connect or reconnect with someone and ignore the phone.

“Whatever you’re going through, create a ritual,” he added. “You don’t need permission.”

And for every ritual, every gathering, consider wine.

Or as Shakespeare once wrote in Henry VIII as one of the characters welcomes guests to a festive gathering, “Good company, good wine, good welcome can make good people.”