Best Wine Books for the holidays…
One cannot (nor should not!) drink wine all of the time, but we can certainly read about it as often as we want. Here are my recommendations for some of my favorite wine books of the year…
As noted here previously, the best reference book on Burgundy in the last 250 years was published this year – the superbly excellent Inside Burgundy by Jasper Morris. Maddeningly, it has still not been released in the U.S. – but is available through a UK site, which seems to be the most cost effective way to get the book into your hands here stateside. If you have only one Burgundy book on your shelf, this is the one.
The best-written, best-researched book on a single Burgundian subject ever is undoubtedly Allen Meadows’ Pearl of the Côte, a simply brilliant work that digs deep into the history and magic of the terroir of Vosne-Romanée and its exalted Grand Crus. Every Burgundy lover should own this book, period.
Closer to home, I highly recommend Voodoo Vintners by Oregonian & Mix wine columnist Katherine Cole. It’s an excellent and thoughtful exploration of the Biodynamic farming and winemaking practices, focusing on a number of us practitioners here in the Willamette Valley. The book lets you make up your own mind about whether you believe in the philosophy or not, and it is all laid out logically and concisely. Well-written and very informative, it gives you a great window into what’s going on in the fields and cellars of many of Oregon’s marquee producers.
I’m also a big fan of Secrets of the Sommeliers, from wine writer Jordan Mackay and mega-somm Raj Parr. If you want to kick your overall wine knowledge up a notch or two, this is an excellent guide to the world of fine wine and how best to navigate through it like the pros.
Grab any of these, along with some Scott Paul Pinot (or Burgundy or Champagne, of course) – and your gift list is complete. Cheers!
