As much as we wine lovers like to get gifts of wine for the holidays, we also appreciate wine books. If they’re like me, they’re always interested in a good reference book. And I’ve got two good ones to recommend.
Although there are countless guides to California wine, I don’t think you can do much better than “The New Connoisseurs’ Guidebook to California Wine and Wineries” ($28) by Charles E. Olken and Joseph Furstenthal. Mr. Olken is best known in the wine world for his newsletter, The Connoisseurs’ Guide To California Wine, published since 1974.
The book begins with a useful primer on California’s wine history, how wine is made, and the most important grapes and wine types, and concludes with a helpful glossary of wine terms. But the heart of the book is the 500 winery profiles, thoughtfully organized by geographic region. After describing each region, Olken identifies the key producers, and includes smallish but useful maps showing their location.
What the book lacks in detail (the profiles are rather short and the Central Coast and South Coast especially get short shrift), it more than makes up for in breadth and especially with critical assessments of each winery. Too many such books are simple recitations of otherwise available facts. Olken wisely adds value with descriptions of the wineries’ style and overall quality. A welcome inclusion is the reading list of important books, magazines, newsletters, blogs and websites focusing on California wine.
This is an indispensable reference and would be a great companion on any visit to California wine country.
Equally vital for its chosen subject is “Washington Wines and Wineries: The Essential Guide, Second Edition” ($35) by Paul Gregutt. Mr. Gregutt, who writes for the Seattle Times and Wine Enthusiast, is one of the foremost authorities on Washington wine.
His guide begins with a history of Washington wine and descriptions of the best regions (with good maps), grapes, and vineyards. The core of the book also is the winery profiles (about 200 of the state’s 500-plus wineries). The profiles are fairly detailed, with descriptions of the key wines and, again thankfully, of overall quality.
I especially like that Gregutt provides a critical assessment of the wineries, considering style, consistency, value, and “contribution to the development and improvement of the Washington wine industry” in his rankings. And in the chapter on the grapes, he also lists who he thinks are the best wineries for each varietal.
If you haven’t discovered Washington wine yet, it’s time you did and this book is a great companion on the journey.
“Reading between the Wines” ($25) by Terry Theise is a completely different sort of wine book. Mr. Theise is famous in the wine world as an importer of wines from Germany, Champagne, and Austria. He also has gained attention for his passionate writing about wine in his catalogue. This book further reflects that passion.
Theise begins by describing how he came to have a life in wine. More importantly, he asks the reader “to accept the ethereal as an ordinary and valid part of everyday experience – because the theme of this book is that wine can be a portal into the mystic.” Along the way he pays homage to particular grape varieties, profound wines and model producers to illustrate the theme.
Theise is trying to convey how wine (and a wine drinking experience) can be more than the sum of its parts. The book is an exploration of the meaning of wine and how wine can deliver emotional, sensual, inspirational, even mystical and transcendental experiences. But only certain wines can do this, only wines of honest origin from artisan producers mostly from the “Old World” (like those he imports).
It’s about authenticity. Mass produced, industrial, manufactured wines may offer a nice diversion now and then but cannot facilitate such meaningful experience. The implication is that such wines are not real wine. They are what might be called (paraphrasing Michael Pollan’s description of processed food) “drinkable wine-like liquids.”
It seems even artisan produced “New World” wines fall short by this measure. In Theise’s world, authenticity takes time. Here is where the “New World” wines of the Western Hemisphere just can’t match the wines of “Old World” Europe. Heard of “slow food?” Well, this is “slow wine.”
The enlightening final chapter on tasting wine reads like a manifesto effectively illustrating the holistic approach to wine promoted throughout the book. It’s one I’ll come back to time and again.