Adventures in Wine: True Stories of Vineyards and Vintages Around the WorldThom Elkjer Adventures in Wine takes you to the wine country like no other wine book: behind the scenes, into the vineyards and cellars, with some of the world's finest wine writers. Here the emphasis is not on the wine - though it's always present - but on the richly textured tapestry that wine has woven into our world for centuries. Each story is a personal exploration of a place on earth that is fortunate enough to be called wine country. Yes, you'll visit Napa and Provence and Tuscany, but also Greece and Hungary, Arizona and Alsace, Georgia and Georgia (the state and the country). These writers let the world of wine affect them deeply: Gerald Asher discovers a moment of rare happiness with a wine he can never name, Karen MacNeil is led inexorably from midtown Manhattan to a mountaintop vineyard in California, vintner Steve Edmunds discovers that perhaps the wine is making him, not the other way around - and novelist Jim Harrison reveals how wine helped save his life. These are the stories that wine country travelers tell each other late into the evening, when pretense is put aside and deeper truths are revealed. There's also plenty of rollicking good fun, such as learning how Kit Snedaker craftily gets the upper hand on snooty sommeliers; joining Bob Blumer, the Surreal Gourmet, as he works the harvest at Burgundy's most august domaine, Romanée-Conti; and wading into the Seine with DeAnne Musolf Crouch to catch trout - with a net. There's something for every wine lover in Adventures in Wine, including history, technology, and Peter Mayle searching for a spittoon. So uncork a bottle and take a trip to the wine country with some of the most observant, engaging, and enlightening guides you'll ever meet between the covers of a book. |
Contents
Sipping with the Gods | 3 |
In the Valley of the Beautiful Women | 9 |
Arriving at Wine | 16 |
The Angle and the Voice | 24 |
A Harvest in Alsace | 32 |
Exhilarating Virtues of Wine | 35 |
The Passing of Butterflies | 39 |
Etymology of a Wine Lover | 43 |
Red Wines and Rednecks | 151 |
Sometimes a Man Just Needs a Drink | 158 |
Wine Wild West | 162 |
Foreign Exchange | 172 |
The Biggest Bread in Sancerre | 178 |
The Impossible Port | 180 |
Wood Nymphs and Viagra | 185 |
Chewing on Chile | 191 |
Remembrance of Wines Past | 47 |
Some Things to Do | 53 |
Cellar Man | 55 |
How to Conquer a Wine List | 64 |
Among Flying Corks | 68 |
Wine and Blood in PulignyMontrachet | 80 |
Catching Dinner | 89 |
The Wine Label | 100 |
A Tale of Two Meals | 106 |
When in Romancée | 112 |
Drinking an 1806 Chateau Lafite | 129 |
Going Your Own Way | 137 |
A Vineyard of His Own | 139 |
Scents and Sensibility | 197 |
In the Shadows | 201 |
Strictly Kosher | 203 |
The Test | 208 |
Braving Barolo | 212 |
Wine Country at the Crossroads | 223 |
The Last Word | 231 |
Wine | 233 |
| 239 | |
| 241 | |
| 245 | |
Acknowledgments | 247 |
Common terms and phrases
Adventures American ancient arrived asked barrels Bordeaux bread Burgundy Cabernet Cabernet Sauvignon California Cathars cellar Chardonnay Château cheese color Copyright cork dark dinner drink Échézeaux Edited Emile Peynaud fermentation flavors France French friends Georgian glass going grapes Greek hand harvest hill James O'Reilly Jan Morris Kermit Lynch knew kosher kosher wine Kostas label Lafite Larry Habegger looked meal Monforte morning Mourvedre mushrooms Napa never night O'Reilly ISBN Peter Mayle picked pickers Pinot Noir poured produce published with permission red wine restaurant Richard Sterling road Romanée-Conti rosé Sauvignon Sean O'Reilly Sébastien seemed Simon Loftus smell smile sommelier spit terroir thing thought tion toast told took town turned Valley village vines vineyard vintage walked white wine wine country wine list wine tasting wine writer winemaker winery women Zinfandel