What do you get a oenophile for Christmas? You could easily pick up a bottle of a good Merlot or Shiraz.However a more enjoyable idea would be a book about wine. Info and stories about the grape is always fun and interesting. It also makes for a nice change up than the usual bottle.
Eric Asimov explored this in his The Pour column in yesterday's New York Times Food section. Getting the wine lover in your life a bottle can be a bit uninspired and boring.Give a book about said bottle and introduce culture and history. Champagne lovers will drink up Champagne Charlie : The Frenchman Who Taught Americans To Love Champagne.(Potomac Books ) by Don and Petie Kladstrup. Its' all about the 19th Century scion of a champagne company who introduced the bubbly to Americans and his misadventures during the American Civil War. In more of the sparkling wine vein there is Rachel Signer's memoir You Gad me At Pet Nat A Natural Wine Soaked Memoir(Hatchette) which is about her love and involvement with petillant natural, an ancient style of sparkling wine revived by natural wine producers. It is a coming of age story Mr Asimov writes and it deals with love and back to earth farming. Robert V. Camuto's South of Somewhere : Wine, Food and the Soul Of Italy (University of Nebraska Press) tells of his ancestry's association with wine. Southern Italy, it's people and the new generation taking over the old wineries. They give the industry a newer, fresher spin, all captured in Mr. Camuto's book.
There are also books on the terroirs. Portuguese wines are the highlight of Foot Trodden: Portugal and Wines That Time Forgot Interlink Publishing) by Simon J. Woolf and Ryan Opaz.It's all about the dynamics of Portuguese wine making. They show the insularity of Portuguese history along with challenges of the winemakers and the potential future oft he country's wines.Jasper Morris covers the ultimate terroir in Inside Burgundy (Berry Brothers and Rudd Press) This is the ultimate guide to the world's most famous wine country. Mr. Morris is an expert himself, living in the region and a retired wine merchant. He even addresses the fallout of climate change.He also covers the rising price of land that affects Burgundy's estates. On a more local note there is Acadamie du Vin Library's On California :From Napa To Nebbiolo _ Wine Tales From The Golden State. it is a collection of short selections from three dozen writers who offer impressionistic and thoughtful views on the state and its' wine making history.There are pieces how California became an important part of the wine industry and world .
A bottle of wine lasts only for a while. A book about wine lasts forever. Get your oenophile one of theses for endless months and years of entertainment.
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