wine book club

Mitchell Beazley Pocket Guides

Wines of Spain by Jan Read

Wineries, regions and vintages are reviewed in this rather useful pocket guide written by veteran wine journalist Jan Read. He is probably the most experienced contemporary writer on Spanish wines and lives, breathes, tastes – and naturally – consumes them. The guide has been published at an ideal time, as Spain is leaving behind its past image as a country with a reputation for inexpensive and moderately priced wines, which left much to be desired, into a modern European winemaking country.
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The Vintner’s Table Cookbook

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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Sassicaia by Marco Fini

In the foreword to this attractive coffee-table edition the prominent Italian wine expert, Burton Anderson recalls, ‘Italian restaurateurs voted Sassicaia ‘wine of the century’ by a wide margin, in a poll conducted by the magazine ‘Civiltà del bere’.
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Death On The Douro

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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Classification of wine

Any wine is a product of fermented juice of various fruits and fruit. Wines are classified in many ways affecting both the physical properties of wine, and with the qualitative characteristics.
Wines are classified by many signs.
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Technology of production of Red wine

The skin of grapes and derived from it during fermentation tannins, pigments and aromatic substances are paramount in the creation of red wine. During the fermentation, and often after its completion, is the extraction of poly phenols. The art of creating red wine - to make this process efficient and on time to stop him. As for the white varieties, an important criterion for the maturity of red grapes is the level of sugar and acids in berries, as well as the quantity and quality of tannins in their skin and bones.
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Comfort Me With Apples

By Ruth Reichl
Published by Random House
Former New York Times food critic Ruth Reichl’s new book, “Comfort Me With Apples”, could go under the diary category or the dairy section. Sure, it is a first person story from a food writer. It is also a poignant, honest glimpse into Reichl’s fascinating earlier years, more Ashbury and Haight, than raspberry and quaint.

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The Mystique of Barolo

By Maurizio Rosso & Chris Meier
Published by Omega Arte

Most wine books focus on the wine and the geography. “The Mystique of Barolo” by Maurizio Rosso and Chris Meier (coffee table sized hardback) captures 35 of the personalities that craft the northern Italian Nebbiolo grape into the elegant bottles marked Barolo. Italy is orchestrating an exciting new-world resurgence.
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Ask the Wine Guy - Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Wine, but Didn’t Know Who to Ask

By Joe Borrello
Author Joe Borrello, (also author of “Recipes From the Wineries of the Great Lakes”), in his most recent book “Ask the Wine Guy”, writes much like a catechism or a website’s FAQ. He details the most often asked questions, followed by concise, clear answers. The advantage here is that he answers the questions that you didn’t know - until now - that you had.
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Vintage Humor for Wine Lovers

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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