Among the French wine regions, the Languedoc-Roussillon offers the highest density of cooperative cellars. For hundreds, they are born, mostly in the inter-war years, the need to overcome the domination of trading and equip itself to winemaking performance. Published on the initiative of the Regional Council, the book paints a picture of that heritage is part of the soul of this region.
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This attractively illustrated volume, which includes regional maps, is far more than a coffee table book. It is a comprehensive guide to Italy and its winemaking today. The authors are two experienced Italian wine journalists who clearly have encyclopedic knowledge.

It begins with an untitled and beautifully balanced still life of various wine bottles and jugs to introduce ‘The Story of Italian Wine’, followed by explanatory chapters on Italian wine production, label regulations and grape varieties. The co-authors then proceed to divide Italian wine production into 6 main areas: The Northwest, The Northeast, Adriatic Apennines, The Central Tyrrhenian, The Southern Peninsula and The Islands. Each of these is sub-divided into individual regions and then into chapters about specific denominations.
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Husband and wife wine journalist team, Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, may not be household names to the majority of American wine enthusiasts, but to hundreds of thousands of Wall Street Journal readers their Friday ‘Tastings’ column is a must. The depleted shelves of so many wine retailers across the nation are testimony to their column’s influence. Now the couple bring much of their enthusiasm to their new hardback ‘The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine’ published by Broadway Books at $25.
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The approach the author was initially create 14 families of wines (eg circles, the wealthy, the complex, fruity, …) and then proposes a series of recipes that these wines can accompany with happiness. Each recipe has a full page, without pictures but with a clear layout and comfortable.
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Denis is a columnist Hervier passionate about wine and gastronomy and it is constantly seeking new agreements with the “black diamond”, the black truffle is so rich in opportunities for associations and opening the doors of ecstasy great taste.

His books Truffle form a small book of a hundred pages introducing us into the world of melanosporum: small interviews with chefs, like Michel Portos, one of the best truffle in the Hexagon, or Pierre- Jean Pebeyre, a truffle trader who gives us a lot about the difficulty of the current market for truffles. On the menu, it also gives us some recipes … and especially his favorite heart for wines that occupy the greater part of this little book.
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Jacques-Louis Delpal tirelessly to improve his excellent book on the agreements and the new edition at a very affordable price appears to be particularly inviting and pleasant to use.

The book is organized into major sections: appetizer, starters, seafood, fish, poultry, veal, beef, pork, lamb, game, great food, cheese, desserts. In each section, foods are ordered not alphabetically but by similarity, the most common dishes usually come first. This mode of classification is very convenient to use, it is fairly easy to find something without even need to go through the index at the end of the book.
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The fact that the cover is a ghastly shade of green should not deter you from buying this admirable beginners’ guide. As with all Oz Clarke’s books the reader is treated to the most helpful content, and the majority of it is easy to follow. The only question I would raise concerns its $20 price, which seems a little high for the size and presentation.
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Recipes from a Winery Chef

By Mary Evely

Published by Simi Winery
P. O. Box 698, Healdsburg CA 95448
Tel: 707 433 6981 Fax: 707 433 6253

Edited, designed and manufactured in the USA by Favorite Recipes Press
2451 Atrium Way, Nashville TN 37214

In her foreword to ‘The Vintner’s Table Cookbook’, Zelma Lang, Winemaker and President of Simi, pays tribute to the years of dedicated work which Simi Chef Mary Evely has put to good use in this out-of-the-ordinary cookbook. The observation that ‘The serious study of how wines pair best with different foods has, for the most part, been undertaken either haphazardly or intuitively.’ will find a sympathetic chord in the hearts of many wine lovers.
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By Tony Aspler
Warwick Publishing Group, Toronto, Canada
Canadian Distributor: General Distribution Services, Etobicoke, Canada
Order Number (Ontario and Quebec 1-800-387-0141)
Order Number (North-western Ontario and all other provinces 1-800-387-0172)
US Distributor: LPC Group Chicago. Order Number 1-800-626-4330

Ezra Brant, renowned Canadian wine taster and writer (sound familiar?) is the chief protagonist in this drama on the Douro. A cocktail of sleuthing and slurping, the book makes ideal holiday reading, especially if detective fiction is amongst your other passions – wine being naturally first and foremost.
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By Malcolm Kushner

Malcolm Kushner has done the often too stuffy world of wine a favor by writing the long awaited book “Vintage Humor for Wine Lovers.” To this point, wine humor was generally limited to an occasional cartoon in The New Yorker, too often about a wine snob.

The drinking of wine has induced smiles since the beginnings of civilization. Kushner offers hundreds of funny wine thoughts in a Henny Youngman delivery throughout the book. For example, he presents a three columned chart of ambiguous wine descriptors for situations when you are called upon to describe a wine.
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