By billn on July 9, 2007
An important book, so worth a little delving into the detail. I purchased it in the Athenaeum bookshop in Beaune for 28 Euros – it doesn’t seem to be listed on Amazon at this time. A quick flip through the contents and contributors (interviewees) and this is a book that looks like it should be worth the outlay – each author somehow touching on the subject of terroir and the winemaker. It’s one of the few of Jacky’s books that I’ve seen translated from his native French, he doesn’t speak English himself, or at least the one time we had a conversation I had the impression that his English was worse than my French – in itself quite an achievement! – and maybe I can [....]
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By billn on June 17, 2007
My journeys on the tram these last weeks have been enlivened by this book – Phylloxera. Like all the best stories, we have a malevolent baddie – and an ugly one – that’s bent on the destruction of (wine) ‘civilisation’. As the detective work unfurls the deadly ‘enemy’ takes many names; Peritymbia vitisana, Pemphigus vitifolii, Daktulosphaira, Viteus vitifolii, Rhizaphis vastatrix and Phylloxera vastatrix. Today, science knows it as Daktulosphaira vitifolii but the name ‘phylloxera’ persits. Don’t however assume that this is just history told; in California the destruction of previously resistant vines has recently heralded the arrival of phylloxera ‘Biotype B’ – the problem starts afresh. The book is packed full of biggots, self promoters and always until it’s too late – denial. A fully [....]
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By billn on November 4, 2006
First published in 1990, I found this book at a bargain-price in a second-hand book store – the condition is far from perfect, but it’s very serviceable. This is really just a coffee-table book, but it’s chock-full of very pretty pictures taken from the air – one of a series by the authors. There are, of-course, photos of vineyards and grand houses in the Côte d’Or, but ‘Burgundy’ is a much wider area and landscape. This book was a very nice acquisition – but be careful not to spill coffee on it!
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By billn on October 9, 2006
Subtitled: The Magnificent Dukes and their Courts. Let’s be clear about this at the outset – this is, despite its main title, a virtually wine-free book. Of-course, gifts by way of a few barrels here and a few barrels there pop-up from time to time but no more often than a prince of the realm has ‘his brains scattered in the mud’. This book covers the dynasty of the Dukes of Burgundy, ‘princes of the blood, but owners of vast estates existing in their own right and over which France had no juristiction’; estates which made these Dukes and their vassals some of the richest of the ‘middle-ages’. It’s about the political intrigue of the time and kingdoms won and lost and like all the [....]
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By billn on September 5, 2006
I just got to the end of Jamie Goode’s self-published book on wine bottle closures. The book is a distillation of current knowledge/data with respect to the various approaches to what I will call ‘taint management’. To be honest, I found this a really interesting read and though there is a high dose of technical language, Jamie really made it easy for this (ex) research chemist – I think it’s also reasonably approachable for ‘lay’ readers. Unlike Jamie’s book on wine science, this is a lower-budget presentation that is structured with very short sections that are perfect for 15 minutes reading here and 10 minutes there – my main reading operandi. Jamie repeats himself often; it’s like a presenter, telling you what he’s going to [....]
Posted in Books, Maps & Magazines, Vintage 2006 |
By billn on July 21, 2006
Heading for the Côtes for a couple of days next week but there’s not much additional on the site this month – it must be that hot weather holiday feeling – however, I have had chance to catch up on a little reading, specifically a collection of older books on wine. It’s fascinating to see the same discussions about new vs old-style winemaking and the lottery of finding good bottles – where have I heard that before? – but it’s interesting to read it from the perspective of people writing in the 1920′s-1960′s. The style of prose may have changed, but little else! I have a couple more books on the way, but the last two weeks have been filled with unfamiliar author’s names such [....]
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By billn on September 6, 2003
Can one vineyard consistently produce wine of a different quality or expression despite being separated by no more than a small dirt road? It is the basis of the French A.O.C system and the clarion call of the ‘terroiristes’. There are those who find this (very) frankly an unsatisfactory and even worse a completely unscientific explanation of the phenomenon – if indeed there is such a phenomenon. Although starting on the (almost) completely different subject of reviewing Andrew Jefford’s super new book ‘The New France’ here in this thread a wonderfull display of entrenched positions emerge.
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