{"id":5646,"date":"2011-12-21T19:48:06","date_gmt":"2011-12-21T19:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/?p=5646"},"modified":"2011-12-21T19:49:32","modified_gmt":"2011-12-21T19:49:32","slug":"the-years-most-entertaining-and-genuinely-useful-wine-book-does-for-the-rest-of-the-world-what-kermit-lynchs-did-for-france-louisville-courier-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/the-years-most-entertaining-and-genuinely-useful-wine-book-does-for-the-rest-of-the-world-what-kermit-lynchs-did-for-france-louisville-courier-journal\/","title":{"rendered":"The Year\u2019s Most Entertaining and Genuinely Useful Wine Book does for the rest of the world what Kermit Lynch’s did for France – Louisville Courier Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The bookshelves in my kitchen long ago exceeded their maximum capacity. Nowadays, those shelves are stocked only with essential titles that come in handy when emergencies arise \u2014 like when I forget how to truss a moose or the best way to deodorize a durian.<\/p>\n

Most of my books about food and beverages are shelved with the rest of the library, a few feet away from the volumes of poetry and fiction, and fantasy \u2014 a category that includes the many dozens of tomes that promise to improve my golf swing.<\/p>\n

In case your holiday shopping list includes books about food and drink, here are a few recommendations.<\/p>\n

These days, I never feel the need to consult big wine reference books \u2014 the ones that offer you a capsule description of every vineyard and vintage in Burgundy and beyond.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re too heavy to lug to the local wine shop \u2014 and when you get to the wine shop, most of the wines that are mentioned won\u2019t be available. Plus, they\u2019re always out of date.<\/p>\n

They might be useful if you\u2019re buying from auction houses or stocking a massive cellar, but if you\u2019re picking up bottles for actual drinking, not so much (besides, if you have a Web-enabled phone, you can find current online wine reviews<\/strong><\/a> while standing in front of the shelves).<\/p>\n

Better are lively books that fill your mind and memory with stories of wine and its makers.<\/p>\n

In a similar vein, Natalie MacLean\u2019s \u201cUnquenchable<\/strong><\/a>: A Tipsy Quest for the World\u2019s Best Bargain Wines\u201d is one of this year\u2019s most entertaining \u2014 and genuinely useful \u2014 wine books.<\/p>\n

MacLean is a populist and populizer, with a personal story to tell, an ear for memorable anecdote and a keen understanding of the history, science and romance of wine (and though the book focuses on regions where the best bargains can be found, she writes with authority about great wines as well).<\/p>\n

With \u201cUnquenchable,\u201d she does for the rest of the world what Lynch did for the then lesser-known regions of France. Her travels take her to Australia, Africa and Argentina; to Sicily, Germany, Portugal and Provence (where she investigates the region\u2019s great ros\u00e9s; and to Ontario (MacLean is a Canadian), a region where some of North America\u2019s finest wines are now being produced (mostly unknown to those of us who live below the 49th Parallel).<\/p>\n

MacLean discovers the essence of each region she covers, talking to larger-than-life characters, demystifying issues of climate and geography, and writing vivid, accessible prose about the wines she drinks.<\/p>\n

Instead of the laughably obscure mumbo-jumbo that dominates most wine writing, she shares the experience of drinking wine with food. Of a German Riesling, she writes, \u201cThe wine is like a foam cuisine: an ethereal essence of flavor. We drink it with some of the foods that are toughest on wine, such as sauerkraut, bratwurst and Wienerschnitzel. (Maybe the Germans had to invent such a resilient wine just to match their traditional cuisine).\u201d<\/p>\n

As a practical matter, each chapter concludes with simple tips about how to find the best wines of the region, lists of the most interesting producers, suggested pairings and online and print resources.<\/p>\n

You can read more reviews of my new wine book<\/a> <\/strong>Unquenchable here.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The bookshelves in my kitchen long ago exceeded their maximum capacity. Nowadays, those shelves are stocked only with essential titles that come in handy when emergencies arise \u2014 like when I forget how to truss a moose or the best way to deodorize a durian. Most of my books about food and beverages are shelved with the rest of the library, a few feet away from the volumes of poetry and fiction, and fantasy \u2014 a category that includes the many dozens of tomes that promise to improve my golf swing. In case your holiday shopping list includes books about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-unquenchable","category-books-wine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5646"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5659,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5646\/revisions\/5659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}