For The Wine Lover

 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.

The Birthplace Of Olive OIl

 Many think that the best and the birthplace of olive oil is Greece. Yet the Palestinian town of Rameh,Israel has also pressed olives for the last 5,000 years. The end result is a smooth sweet oil  that can go in either savory or sweet dishes.

Reem Kassis, a Palestinian food and culture writer wrote about this famed oil in Wednesday's New York Times Food section. she visited this  Northern Israeli town, located halfway between the Mediterranean and the Sea of Galilee. It is high up in the hills where the olive tress abound and have been long before Jesus Christ. It has long held the reputation of being the area's best olive oil. Its' color is a bright liquid gold with an aroma reminiscent of wild grasses and dandelion leaves that grow around the trees.Users describe it as rich and smooth  with a mouth feel of ghee or clarified butter. This area has long produced this oil, being the main producer of the ancient world.Now Spain and Southern Italy are the now the main producer's of the world's olive oils. Rameh still has an amazing two thousand acres of trees surrounding this hill town. Th eolifes and trees have long been praised in newspapers articles, books and even poetry. The village declares itself as the "queen of Palestinian oil".

Why is Rameh's oil so delicious? It has to do with harvesting.The trees are harvested later in the season than  the other olive trees in the region.This is due partly to the olive fruit fry that comes in from the coast. It works inland which means the more western regions have to harvest unripe olives. This happens much later in Rameh where it takes a while for the infestation to hit along with being much higher up. The olives are allowed to ripen to their full maturity which directly affects the color and flavor of the oil. According to local MAzen Ali, this makes for a "pleasant bitterness but is still delicious and fruit." There's also the favorable climate along with being grown in a nutrient rich soil.It's tilled by livestock and not treated with commercial fertilizers. There's also meticulous  care and pruning. which produces green olives with purple spots.Unfortunately the groves were restricted and untended during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.Also closing the borders of Lebanon and Syria during this time helped too. Ms. Kassis also included  recipes for homemade pita and olive oil soaked za'atar and bugar majadura.a mix of lemtils and fried onions.

The world needs to know about Rameh's treasured olive oil. It would be perfect in cooking and even  baking. This is the epitome of oil, sweet, smooth and silky.