Gift Wine Books

                                                            

Recently, my Copy Editor and I had lunch with an old friend and his wife.  We meet now and then to swap past wine stories, talk about family and generally enjoy each others company.

At the end of our meal, Gerry surprised me with a generous gift of eight wine books.  Not just any wine books, but old ones that are probably long out of print.  The authors are mostly familiar to me: H. Warner Allen, Paul Lukacs, Maynard Amerine, Thomas Matthews, Don Kladstrup, Pierre Galet, while Barry Woelfel and Gordon M. Shepherd are not.

If my life had taken a different path, I might be growing wine grapes today instead of writing about them.  So, when I got back to my office and unpacked the book bag, Galet's "A Practical Ampelography," was the first book I leafed through.  The last grape in the index of grapes was Valdiguie, an almost forgotten variety I had mentioned in my November 15 post about Gamay.

I was being snarky in that post by suggesting a grower might have second thoughts about   planting Valdiguie, since "who's going to buy a wine labeled Valdiguie?"  I was second guessing growers and should have noticed there are dozens of varietal California Valdiguies and Valdiguie/Gamay blends on retail shelves.   

A reader of this blog and a friend also pointed out that he found J. Lohr 2022 Wildflower Arroyo Seco Monterey Valdiguie at his local wine store.  That friendly note jogged my untrustworthy  memory that J. Lohr has been making Valdiguie for years.

Anyway, with the holidays coming soon, there may be a book lover, especially with a fondness for wine books, on your list.  Although, as I noted, the eight books are probably out of print, but check your local used book store or run a neighborhood want ad to see if any of the books turn up. 

And to help in the search, here are a few lines about each of the eight gift books: 

The Pierre Galet book on ampelography, 1979, is an abbreviated edition, with new additions, of his massive four-volume book on wine grapes of France. The Galet is a standard reference of 150 American and European grape varieties, supplemented by hundreds of illustrations.   American viticultural consultant, Lucie Morton, provided the translation and the late Leon Adams, "Dean of American Wine Writers," wrote the Foreword.

Another seminal text on grape cultivation and wine making is "Wine," by retired UC-Davis professors Maynard Amerine and Vernon Singleton, second edition, 1977.  This update  expands on American wine while including chapters on European and Australian wine, plus sections on wine making and grape growing.  "Wine" should be in every wine lovers library.

"A History of Wine," H. Warner Allen, 1961, is an engrossing read, subtitled, "Great Vintage Wines from The Homeric Age to The Present Day."   Allen was a British author and journalist who died in 1968.  He wrote numerous books on many subjects and has an impressive way with words.  Part One of this history is titled "The First Golden Age of Vintage Wines."  Part Two captures "The Fall of the Roman Empire, through the "Dark Ages of Vintage Wine." And Part Three follows the transition to the Silver Age, which Allen sees as a decline in vintage wines.  Allen's travels through the history of vintage wine is food for thought.

"Inventing Wine," 2012, by the late Paul Lukcas, is a more modern look at the history of wine and what we think of it.  In nine chapters, the author takes the reader on a wine journey from the Middle Ages to the New Millennium.  Paul Lukacs was a college professor with a solid knowledge of wine and a talent for sharing that knowledge in words. 

"Wine & War" was published in 2001 and I read it shortly after.  This well-written history book with a wine connection, is by journalist Don Kladstrup and his wife Petie, a freelance writer.  Kladstrup is an award-winning television news correspondent.  The engrossing story the Kladstrups tell is about the French Resistance, many of whom were winemakers, and how they hid thousands of bottles of valuable wine from the Nazis in Paris.  It's a great read.

The three gifted wine books, now on my reading list, are "A Village in the Vineyards," Thomas Matthews, Photographs by Sara Matthews, 1993, is an account of a year spent by the couple in a small wine town in Bordeaux; "Neuroenology," Gordon M. Shepherd, 2017, a Yale professor of neuroscience, examines  how the brain creates the taste of wine; "Through a Glass, Darkly," 1984, edited by Barry Woelfel, is a fascinating anthology of 13 tales of wine and crime, by such authors as  Edgar Allen Poe, Arthur C. Clarke, Roald Dahl and O. Henry. 

There's something here in this short list of wine books for every wine drinker, find the right book and gift it to someone you know. 

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