Holiday Booklist

Uncategorized

unlikely-vineyard-shadows

Looking for a gift idea for the oenophile who has everything? As part of our ongoing series on wine reads, here are some suggestions from the genre for the wine geek who loves to learn.

An Unlikely Vineyard: The Education of a Farmer and Her Quest for Terroir
by Deirdre Heekin

First things first, this is an absolutely gorgeous book. What strikes me as interesting about this fact is that it is that it’s published by Chelsea Green, who focuses exclusively on sustainable and green living, prints books on recycled paper, etc. In an era where we so often don’t need an actual printed book, it’s fascinating that this kind of publisher has produced something that so begs to be purchased as an an actual hardcover. Yes, it is also available on the Kindle, but the amazing photography, lovely cover and stunning overall presentation make the real thing a great gift and coffee table book.

Though titularly about Heekin’s quest to build a vineyard in Vermont and make quality dry wine in a place not known for such, the bulk of the book deals more with farming in general, and the trials and tribulations Heekin and her family had establishing their sustainable bio-dynamic farm, yes including grape vines, but also apples, pears, vegetables, herbs, wildflowers and more. It’s at times too detailed for the casual wine lover, and maybe better suited for the hard-core gardener or farmer, but Heekin’s passion for the details of organic and bio-dynamic farming is obvious and infectious.

Lastly, Heekin’s essay on terroir towards the end of the book is the best thing I read on wine all year, and the one thing I’d hand anyone with doubts on the subject. If we all read it, it would put the debate (of whether terroir is real or not) to rest once and for all.

Shadows in the Vineyard, The True Story of the Plot to Poison the World’s Greatest Wine
by Maximilian Potter

Though the marketing of this book is quite misleading, it is still a good choice for wine lovers. Read the jacket or Amazon blurb and you’ll likely believe it is about a fascinating true crime, but in fact it is more of a history of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, perhaps Burgundy’s – and thus the world’s – finest vineyard, as well as a biography of longtime vigneron Aubert de Villaine. Yes, it covers a plot to poison the vineyard as well, but, quite frankly, the crime isn’t that sinister, and would probably make a better magazine article (as it originally did, for the author, in Vanity Fair). That said, as with the movie A Year in Burgundy, the book will make any drinker want to blow a few paychecks on Bourgogne gold.

We haven’t read these tomes yet, but they’re on our personal wish lists: